


The Golden Girl

by AppleQueen_7140



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1990s, Alternate Universe - No Time Travel, Alternate Universe - No Voldemort, F/M, Friendship, Jealousy, Obsession, Possessive Behavior, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-06
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-08-19 21:54:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 30
Words: 72,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16542992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AppleQueen_7140/pseuds/AppleQueen_7140
Summary: In a world where there is no Voldemort, Hermione is looking forward to her education at Hogwarts. She meets new friends and even catches the attention of Tom Riddle. She doesn't think anything of this at first, but she soon finds, however, that Tom Riddle's attention is not something she wants to have.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This is my first ever piece of work. I hope you all enjoy it!
> 
> I do not own Harry Potter in any way. That would be cool though!

September 1st, 1991

 

Hermione Granger looked out the train window with wide eyes. She couldn’t believe she was finally going. She couldn’t believe that this place existed at all, to begin with. When that witch came to her house (she believed her name was Professor McGonagall), she thought she was in a dream. A sharp pinch to her arm, however, proved that this was, in fact, a reality. 

Her mother always told her she was special, and while a part of her wanted to believe that was true, the more sensible side of her tried to convince herself that she was just as regular as everyone else. She would have believed that sensible voice, were it not for the strange occurrences happening all around her. 

One time, when she was trying to reach a book that was on the highest shelf in her house, and failing magnificently, it just flew into her hand. Another time, there was a small boy in her town that was about to be run over by a bus. She was far away on the sidewalk and instinctively shoved her hands out in front of her as if that would push the boy out of harm's way. To her complete and utter surprise, it did. The boy flew out of the path of the oncoming car and landed safe and sound on the grass a little ways away. 

Hermione turned 11 last September, so she had to wait almost an entire year before she could go to the magical school of which she was told. She spent every minute of that year dreaming of the world she never knew existed and waiting with giddy anticipation for the time when she would finally be able to leave her life of normalcy for one of adventure and excitement. When she finally got to go to Diagon Alley to get her wand and school supplies, she felt as though she were in a dream again. There were so many people and things to see. She could feel the magic in the air. 

And now, she was here. Heading off to the school where she would no longer be the weirdo that no one wanted to hang out with. She hoped she’ll make some friends. Hermione had never had a friend before. The kids at school always thought she was too weird and annoying. They didn’t like how much she cared about school and they called her a know-it-all. 

She sat alone in her empty compartment. No one had entered to sit with her yet. She didn’t completely mind, as she was enjoying herself just fine by reading her schoolbooks. She already read them all and even practiced a few simple spells, but a good rereading of Hogwarts A History wouldn’t hurt. After all, maybe she missed something. 

She was about halfway through the book when her compartment door slid open for the first time since she entered. She looked up from her reading and stared at the three young boys who had opened her door. They seemed friendly enough. One was slightly pudgy and had a round face, one had messy black hair and big green eyes behind round glasses, and the last was tall, red-haired, and lanky. She noticed that the round boy had swollen eyes full of tears.  


“Erm. You haven’t happened to have seen a toad, have you?” The green-eyed boy asked, shyly. “Neville here lost his.” He gestured to the crying chubby boy. Hermione instantly felt a rush of sympathy for the boy. She never had a pet before, but she could imagine the horror of losing something so precious. 

“I have not, I’m sorry”, she replied. Neville’s face fell and she could see several tears drip down his cheeks. The red-haired boy pat him on the back comfortingly. 

“Don’t worry, Neville. Trevor should be around here somewhere. He can’t have gone far. At least, unless you lost him on the platform. If so, he could be anywhere by now.” Hermione could tell the boy was trying to help, but he wasn’t doing a very good job of it. The round boy had started to shake with an effort to keep his tears at bay. She hated seeing him so upset.

“I’ll help you look for him”, she said as she stood up. The boys looked at her, surprised. 

“Thank you”, said the green-eyed boy, smiling. 

She smiled back at him and said, “I’d be happy to. I’m Hermione Granger by the way.” She reached her hand out to shake his. 

“Nice to meet you, Hermione. I’m Harry, Harry Potter.” He took her hand softly and gave it a small shake. She turned to the red-haired boy beside him and held out her hand to his. He looked at her blankly and she raised her eyebrows at him and shook her hand a little, gesturing for him to take it. 

“Oh, er. I’m Ron. Weasley”, he said shaking her hand quickly. His hands were quite large and full of calluses. She noticed that he was extremely freckled. Even his hands were covered in the small dots. 

“And I’m Neville Longbottom”, the round boy piped up. He excitedly stuck his hand out for her to shake, almost taking her head off in the process. She smiled and shook his pudgy hands. 

“It’s very nice to meet you all and I would love to stay and chat, but don’t we have a toad to find?” Hermione smiled and flounced out of the compartment with the boys at her heels. 

The four students looked through every compartment for the toad to no avail. Some people were very nice and gave their sympathies to poor Neville, others laughed at them. Poor Neville was in tears again after a particularly nasty group of boys said that they hoped Trevor got squished. 

Other than the few mean comments and tears, Hermione had a nice time with the boys. She learned that they were all first years like her. Unlike her, however, all of their parents went to Hogwarts as children and they all grew up in the wizarding world. Hermione was a little jealous at first that they knew so much more than she did, but she felt a little better when they told her that they hadn’t read any of their books. 

Harry bought them a lot of sweets from the trolley witch. Apparently, his grandfather was a famous potioneer and left his family a lot of money. Harry told her that his father probably didn’t need to work, but became an Auror (a kind of wizard cop) anyway. Ron got very quiet when Harry talked about how much money he had. Neville whispered to her that Ron’s family was very poor and that he was very sensitive to talks about money. Ron seemed to cheer up after stuffing his face full of sweets though. 

When they got to the compartment at the very end of the train, the curtains were drawn. None of the other compartments had their curtains drawn and Hermione wasn’t aware that the train compartments had curtains on their doors at all. Hermione didn’t let that deter her and opened the door anyway. 

This was by far the biggest compartment on the train, and it was packed full of students. They all looked up at her when she opened the door. A blonde boy near the window scowled at her so fiercely that she almost shrunk under the weight of his gaze. She shook her head and stood up taller instead. 

“Have any of you seen a toad?’ She asked, putting as much authority in her voice as she could. “Neville lost…”

“Why would we care about Longbottom’s stupid toad?” The blond boy interrupted her. She stared at him, caught off guard by his rudeness. Harry and Ron seemed used to this behavior though, as Harry was quick to reply. 

“Sod off, Malfoy.” The boy, Malfoy, glared at Harry and looked as though he was about to respond, but Hermione interrupted. 

“You didn’t have to be rude about it! How hard would it have been to say ‘haven’t seen it, sorry’? Rudeness won’t get you very far in life, I can tell you that, and it would do you some good to be nice to others.” He stared at her, unable to come up with a response. She didn’t wait for him to respond anyway and instead flounced out of the carriage with the three astonished boys following behind her. 

Back in the compartment that Hermione and the boys just left, Draco Malfoy was fuming. No one had ever treated him with such disrespect before. Actually, that wasn’t entirely true. Potter and the Weasleys have always tried to pick fights with him, but he had never been told off by a complete stranger before. He did not like that girl one bit. 

“Stop moping, Draco. It’s behind us now. Let it go.” Draco instantly sat up in his seat. The words were just spoken by the 3rd year boy in the center of their compartment. Tom Riddle. Draco had heard many things about Riddle, most of which were from his father, who was one of the Hogwarts school governors. Riddle was a genius. It was clear, even in his short time at Hogwarts, that he was one of the most brilliant students the school had ever seen. There was also something about him that made you want him to like you. He was very popular, with every member of Slytherin house obeying every word he says, even the older students. 

He reminded Draco of a snake. Calm, cool, and collected until it was time to strike, and then vicious and deadly. Draco did not want to get on his bad side. He was just excited to be invited into Tom’s compartment, being the only first year there. He didn’t want to mess up his chances of getting into Tom’s good graces. He nodded at Tom, who smiled and leaned back in his seat. 

Two train compartments. One with four children, quickly becoming fast friends. The other, led by a boy with a soul as dark as his hair. A boy whose mind kept going back to a small bushy-haired young girl full of fire. 

\-------------------

“GRYFFINDOR!” Cheers went up from the Gryffindor table as the hat was lifted up off of Hermione’s head. She beamed and flounced over to the table, her hair bouncing with every step she took. Harry, Ron, and Neville told her that their parents all went to Gryffindor, as well as all of Ron’s siblings. She could see three heads of flaming red hair all the way from the stool with the sorting hat, so she assumed they were them. She also remembered that Albus Dumbledore, the schools' headmaster, was in Gryffindor. Overall, she was pretty happy with her sorting. 

Across the hall, at the table that all the students sorted into Slytherin went, Tom Riddle stared at her. He watched how she sat next to a blonde first year and smile radiantly at her fellow housemates. He frowned. He knew she would end up in Gryffindor the moment she opened the door to his compartment on the train, but he would have liked to get to know her better. He tried to go back to watching the sorting, but he couldn’t stop himself from watching her. 

He watched as her face lit up when Longbottom, Potter, and Weasley were all sorted into Gryffindor. For such a short amount of time of knowing them, she seemed to have grown rather attached to the boys. He knew she was muggle-born. He could tell on the train and he knew for certain when her name was called. Such a shame. He could tell that she was going to be a great witch. 

He watched her all throughout the feast, barely paying attention to his followers (he refused to call them friends). She was a very lively girl and had the most beautiful smile, even if it was a little toothy. As the students were released to their dorms, Tom found himself looking at her for as long as he possibly could before they were separated by her walking up flights of stairs with the other Gryffindors, and him going down into the dungeons with the other Slytherins. He shook his head as he continued his trek into his new room and found that he couldn’t get her off his mind no matter how hard he tried. He couldn’t help it. He was obsessed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I, sadly, have no ownership of any kind of Harry Potter.

October 31st, 1991

 

Hermione’s first few weeks at Hogwarts were exhilarating. She felt freer than she ever had in her entire life. Casting spells and feeling the magic flow through her was a feeling she never wanted to stop experiencing. She was learning so much and was loving every second of it. 

After that first day on the train, Hermione became very close with Harry, Ron, and Neville. The boys took to liking her immediately after she told off Draco Malfoy, who apparently was a little twat and a bully. She witnessed this firsthand in their classes and decided that she did not like Malfoy one bit. 

The boys were all really nice and were helping to ease her into the wizarding world. Although, as she was the only one to read Hogwarts A History, she knew a lot more about the castle than they did. Therefore, she ended up having to explain to them about the castle a lot of the time. She also ended up helping them a lot in their classes. She picked up on everything a lot quicker than they did (actually, she picked up on everything a lot quicker than everyone in their year did), and she relished in the feeling of knowing everything. 

She really was enjoying being a part of Gryffindor house. She shared a room with Lavender Brown, a blonde girl with brown eyes, and Parvati Patil, an Indian girl with long dark hair. They were a little silly and obsessed with hair and clothes, but they seemed nice enough. The two of them stuck together like glue since their first day of meeting, leaving Hermione feeling a little left out. She didn’t completely mind, though, as she had her books and her boys to keep her company. 

The other Gryffindor students in her year were Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan. She didn’t see them much, except for in classes, but Harry, Ron, and Neville liked them a lot. Seamus had a tendency for setting things on fire. Whether it be a misbrewed potion or a spell he said wrong, Seamus always seemed to cause something to go up in flames. Hermione often wondered if he did it on purpose, as he got a great big smile on his face whenever any of these accidents happened. 

Ron’s brothers introduced themselves to her the minute they found out she was friends with their youngest brother. Percy was a fifth year and a prefect. He seemed very studious and Hermione liked him a lot, but he tended to be a bit annoying and boring, something that Ron was always quick to point out. 

Ron’s other brothers, Fred and George, were identical twins and the exact opposite of boring. They were always hanging out with their friend, Lee Jordan, and causing all sorts of mischief that could rival Peeves the poltergeist. They were often getting in trouble because of their pranks, and while Hermione normally would disapprove, she couldn’t help but laugh along with everyone else whenever they successfully pulled one off. 

She also really liked her teachers. There was Professor McGonagall, the Transfiguration professor and head of Gryffindor house. She was very strict, but seemed to like Hermione immensely after she correctly answered every question asked on the first day of class. 

Professor Lupin was their Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. He was very kind, but Hermione noticed he seemed very tired. On the first day of class, Harry ran up to him and gave him a big hug. Apparently, Professor Lupin was one of Harry’s dad’s best friends and therefore helped to raise Harry. 

Their Charms professor was Professor Flitwick, a really tiny wizard who spoke with a high squeaky voice, and their History of Magic professor was Professor Binns, a really boring ghost. Harry and Ron swore they really tried to pay attention in Binn’s class, but they never were able to focus for longer than five minutes. Neville lasted longer, but even he succumbed to the boringness of Binns and ended up daydreaming through half of the class. Hermione didn’t understand how they could be so disinterested. Sure, their teacher was a bore, but the subject matter he was covering was anything but. She didn’t know there could be so many goblin rebellions. 

On their first weekend at school, Harry introduced her to Hagrid, the groundskeeper. Hagrid was very very tall and large. He would be intimidating, if not for his friendly smile and great big, bone-crushing, hugs. Hermione liked Hagrid immediately and went down with Harry and Ron to visit him every weekend. Neville wanted to come along, but he was terrified of fang, Hagrid’s boarhound. 

Of course, Hermione couldn’t forget about the potions professor, Professor Slughorn. He was an incredibly fat old man with a spectacular mustache and a joyful attitude. Harry and Ron weren’t crazy about him, but Hermione thought he was a great teacher. The boys wouldn’t tell her this, but they couldn’t stand how much Slughorn favored Hermione. Slughorn was known for picking favorites, and he was constantly showering Hermione with praise. Of course, Harry and Ron couldn’t complain too much. Hermione was doing very well and she deserved to be told so. They just wished that Slughorn would be like the other teachers, and give her extra points instead of shouting her praises throughout the entire lesson. 

Unfortunately for Hermione, her friends were not the only ones who were bothered by this. The entire first year was getting more and more annoyed with Hermione’s know-it-all attitude and her status as teacher’s pet by the day. While the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw students were more tactful in their views of Hermione, the Slytherins made their dislike of her very clear, especially Draco Malfoy. 

It was Halloween when Slughorn finally invited Hermione to the Slug Club. Everyone knew it coming, Slughorn had been hinting at it for a while now, but the announcement still left Ron feeling queasy. The Slug Club was a club for all of the most prestigious students Hogwarts had to offer. Or, at least, the most prestigious according to Slughorn. It was very rare for a first year to be invited to be in the club, in fact, the only other first year ever to have that honor before then was Tom Riddle. 

Ron glared at Slughorn while Hermione beamed. It was bad enough that he had five older brothers to live up to, now his close friend was outshining him in every way as well. Ron liked Hermione, he really did. She was very nice and always willing to help him with schoolwork when he needed it, which was a lot. She also was one of the few people willing to stand up to Draco Malfoy, which was a big plus in Ron’s book. 

She was just so bossy and constantly showing off how smart she was. She was the teachers' pet, while he was constantly being called by his brothers' names. It was just getting to be too much for Ron to handle. So, while Harry and Neville smiled at Hermione and gave her their congratulations, Ron glowered and angrily packed up all his things before stomping off to Charms, which was their next class. 

Hermione didn’t fail to notice Ron’s annoyance. She sadly watched as he left the classroom without a word to anyone else. She was very aware of everyone’s dislike of her. How could she not be with the number of times she heard ‘know-it-all’ said behind her back whenever she answered a question? 

Part of her wanted to stay quiet and not go above and beyond in her classes, but another part of her knew that she had to continue as she was doing if she wanted to succeed. Unlike her, most of her classmates had family in this magical world. They had connections in the workplace and could practically do anything they wished when they grew up. She didn’t have that luxury. If she wanted to be successful, she had to work for it. 

For the first time in her life, she felt like she was somewhere where she belonged. She had friends and her teachers liked her. She wanted to stay here forever. She was constantly plagued with this fear that if she showed anything less than excellence, she would be kicked to the curb. Realistically, she knew that this wouldn’t happen, but she couldn’t help but fear it. 

Harry stood by her side and pat her on her shoulder.

“Don’t worry about him. He’ll be fine,” Harry said reassuringly. Hermione nodded. She hoped that Harry was right. Harry and Hermione waited for Neville to finish scraping his glob of a potion out of his cauldron and into the trash before heading off to Charms. 

Ron’s attitude hadn’t improved by the time the three of them made it to Charms. He didn’t even look up at Hermione as she passed by, much less return her tentative smile. Harry looked at her sympathetically before moving to sit down beside Ron. Hermione sat on Harry’s other side and Neville sat beside her. 

They were learning levitating charms. Hermione mastered it right away, to Ron’s frustration. Flitwick had everyone watch her perform the charm successfully. Hermione noticed that Ron was the only one not paying attention, instead choosing to repeatedly stab the feather they were supposed to be levitating. 

She bit her lip and quickly sat down, watching Ron mumble under his breath “wingardium leviosa” over and over again as he tried to get his feather to fly. 

“Ron stop”, she said leaping up and hurrying to stand beside him. “You’re going to take someone’s eye out with the way you’re waving your wand around.” She was trying her best to be helpful, so that was probably why she was missing the harsh glare that Ron was giving her. “And besides, you’re saying it wrong. It’s LeviOsa. Not LeviosA.” She was speaking calmly, trying to get him to understand the spell better. 

Ron was not taking it that way. While her tone was indeed a calm one, it sounded like she was talking to a toddler and that really wasn’t good for Ron’s self-esteem. 

“Will you stop being such a know-it-all?” He hissed at her, harshly. She stepped back. Tears welling up in her eyes. Ron didn’t notice and continued, “It’s so annoying.” That did it. Hermione burst into tears and ran out of the classroom, Professor Flitwick calling after her. 

Ron blinked at the door where she just ran from. Harry turned to his best friend and sighed. 

“You really shouldn’t’ve blown up at her mate,” Harry said softly. When Ron didn’t say anything, he continued. “I know how you’re feeling, I do, but you can’t take your anger out on other people.” Ron nodded and dropped his gaze to the floor. 

\-----------------------------------------------

Hermione was absolutely mortified. She couldn’t believe she started crying in class. She hated crying in front of other people. She used to do that a lot when she was younger and people teased her, but she had gotten better at holding the tears in over the years. She knew she was annoying, she really did. She was just trying to help her friend. 

All of a sudden, the door to the small closet she was currently inside flung open. She looked up, startled, at the intruder standing in the doorway. 

It was Tom Riddle. A third-year Slytherin boy. She hadn’t ever talked to him before, but he seemed nice enough compared to the other residents of his house. He was also very good looking. She probably looked a sorry sight with her red eyes, messy hair, and tear-streaked cheeks. 

Tom didn’t seem perturbed by her disheveled appearance. He squatted down in front of her and looked her right in the eye. She blushed, embarrassed by his close proximity. 

“What are you doing here?” she asked him.

“I could ask the same thing of you,” he replied smoothly. “Why are you hiding in this closet, Hermione? The feast is about to start. You wouldn’t want to miss your first ever Hogwarts Halloween feast.” She gave him a confused look. 

“How do you know my name?”

“Everyone knows of you, Hermione”, he smiled at her. “With all the teachers raving about you, it would be a shock if someone hadn’t heard of your name at least once.” 

Hermione wasn’t sure of how to think about that. One the one hand, she was awfully flattered that her teachers were talking positively about her to other classes. On the other, if her own classmates were getting annoyed with her being praised in their classes, how annoyed must the other students at Hogwarts be with her if the professors were talking about her in their other classes?

“I heard you got invited to Professor Slughorn’s club”, he tells her, sitting fully down in front of her. “I’m a member you know. You can sit by me when he has one of his little dinner parties.” 

Hermione stared at the older boy, completely shocked. “You never answered my question uh…”

“Please”, he replied, smiling kindly at her. “Call me Tom.”

“Okay, uh why are you here, Tom?” She asked, a little surprised that he wanted her, a lowly first year, to call him by his first name. 

He pursed his lips as he looked at her. It felt more like he was studying her. 

“I heard someone crying in here, so I came to check it out.” 

“Oh.” She felt embarrassed. She wondered how many other people hear her crying. She looked down at her toes. 

“Hey”, Tom said, lifting up her chin so he could look her in the eye. “There are much better things to do with your time than curl up here in a smelly closet.” He smirks at her. “You’re brilliant, Hermione. You should be honing in on your talents. I could…”

“Hermione! There you are!”

Hermione looked towards the voice, sharply turning her head away from Tom. In the doorway, stood Harry, Neville, and a sheepish Ron. 

Tom frowned at the boys, before turning back to Hermione. 

“I’ll see you at Slughorn’s party then, Hermione”, he said before standing up and walking past the boys. Hermione watched his retreating form for a few seconds before standing up to face the boys. 

“Er. Hello Hermione”, said Harry awkwardly. “Ron has something to say.” He pushed Ron forward so that he was face to face with Hermione. Ron gulped. 

“I’m uh. Well. I uh...” His ears went scarlet and he looked down at the ground.

“I know you’re sorry Ron”, Hermione sighed, wanting to leave this awkward situation. Neville seemed to think the same thing. The round boy was looking everywhere except at the two of them. Harry was glaring sharply at Ron to continue, but the boy seemed not to know what to say. 

“And I’m sorry too”, she continued. Neville turned his head back to her in shock. Harry and Ron froze. 

“I know it bothers you that the professors are talking about me a lot. I shouldn’t act like”, she paused, tears threatening to spill out of her eyes again. “Like a…”

“Hermione don’t”, Ron interrupted her, looking her right in the eyes. “I shouldn’t’ve called you that in the first place. I was just jealous. I’m always being forgotten, and I thought that I wouldn’t have to worry about that at Hogwarts anymore. I try. I really do. You just outshine us all. Sometimes I feel like the professors don’t even know my name.” He broke eye contact with her at that last part, going back to staring at the floor. 

Ron jumped at the hand suddenly placed on his shoulder. Hermione looked into his eyes and he looked right back. She wrapped her arms around him in a hug and squeezed tight. 

“I’m afraid of not being accepted in this world. I’m just a muggle-born. I feel like I have to prove to everyone that I’m worth keeping here…” She was kept from explaining herself further by Ron returning her hug. 

They stayed there for about a total of five seconds before Ron pushed her away, his ears bright red. 

“Friends again?” he asked, shyly offering her his hand. 

Hermione beamed at him and shook his hand hard. “Friends again.”

And with that, the four Gryffindors went off to enjoy the feast together. They didn’t notice the pair of dark eyes that watched them as they walked away.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who has read my story so far! Everyone who has made comments has been so nice and I really appreciate it. I have been thinking about this story for a while now, and I haven't been able to pluck up the strength to post it until now. I hope you all enjoy the story!
> 
> I do not own Harry Potter. That right belongs to J.K. Rowling.

September 1992

 

While Hermione had a blast the past summer with her parents, she was glad to be back at Hogwarts. She missed the castle with its secret passages and hidden rooms. She missed the great hall with the spectacular food and the warm common room with its comfortable atmosphere. She missed learning new things about the wizarding world. 

But most of all, she missed her friends. Harry, Ron, and Neville owled often, but she was never able to go visit them because she was traveling with her parents. They all seemed to be together most of the summer, which only made her want to be with them more.

She saw Neville first on the platform. He was there early, like her. He was there with his grandmother, a very strict looking woman with a hat that had a stuffed vulture on top of it. She did intimidate Hermione a little when she first met her, but she quickly warmed up to the woman once she mentioned how appreciative she was of Hermione helping Neville all last year. 

“You need more friends like this one”, she had said. Hermione’s parents smiled proudly at her. Hermione beamed and Neville blushed and looked at his shoes. 

Harry arrived a little later with his parents. His dad was tall with messy dark hair and glasses, and his mom was red-haired and had the same green eyes as Harry. When she told Harry so, he just rolled his eyes and said, “everyone says that”. 

Ron didn’t show up until right before the train left the platform. Hermione, Harry, and Neville had found a compartment together and were looking for him. She was quite worried about Ron’s whereabouts, but Harry just laughed and told her that the Weasley’s were late to everything. Harry was proven right to not worry about anything when Ron burst through their door, red-faced and panting. 

Right behind Ron was his little sister, Ginny. She was about to start her first year of Hogwarts, so Hermione had never met her before. Ron and his brothers mentioned her a lot though, so she felt like she had an idea of who Ginny was. 

Ginny was very nice and politely shook her hand upon their meeting. She then, to Hermione’s surprise, formed a devilish grin on her face and whispered to Hermione that she would be happy to divulge any dirt on her brother that Hermione wanted to hear. Hermione decided that she liked Ginny even better after that. 

They had a nice time on the train, playing exploding snap and talking about their respective summer vacations, and cheered when Ginny was sorted into Gryffindor before the feast. That night, the whole of Gryffindor tower stayed up late, talking and watching Fred and George tell jokes. Overall, Hermione felt as though it was a wonderful start to her second year. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------

One of the biggest differences between first years and second years was that second-year students could try out for their house’s Quidditch team. Hermione wasn’t ever the biggest fan of Quidditch. She found herself worrying herself sick over the players rather than watching the actual game, and only ever went to one game the past year. 

Hermione found herself to be quite alone in her dislike of Quidditch. Harry and Ron, in particular, were obsessed with the sport. It was one of their most frequently talked about topics. They were a bit disappointed when they couldn’t try out for the team last year, and were some of the first in line to try out for the opening seeker position the third week into their second year. 

Hermione huddled in the stands under a blanket with Neville and Ginny as they watched the tryouts take place. Ginny was bouncing in her seat the entire time, her eyes gleaming as she watched her housemates fly around and around the field. Hermione could tell that she was sad that she couldn’t try out for the team, even though she didn’t say anything. 

It seemed like a Weasley thing to be on the Quidditch team. Fred and George were beaters on the team, and Ron told her countless times about how his brother Charlie was one of the best seekers Gryffindor house ever had. Ron was hoping to be a part of the family tradition, but it sadly didn’t look like that was going to happen. It was clear, from watching the tryouts, that Ron was terrified of people watching him play. He skidded around nervously on his broom and was always behind all of the other flyers. 

Harry, on the other hand, was a completely different story. The boy looked like he was born to fly up there, flying circles around their housemates that were much older than him. He was definitely the fastest of all the people trying out, and Hermione gasped as he pulled sharply out of a dive so deep that she was certain he was going to crash. She knew that Harry enjoyed playing, but she never realized he was as good as he was. Not only was he a quick and speedy flyer, but he also had a knack for spotting the little golden snitch he was supposed to be catching in the blink of an eye.

It was, therefore, no surprise that Harry won the position of seeker. Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor Quidditch captain, and keeper, beamed with pride when he made the announcement. Hermione couldn’t help but cheer, even as she realized she would have to attend every match Gryffindor played in from then on. She found that she didn’t mind as much as she thought she would. Harry’s big smile was more than worth it. 

As Hermione walked back up to the castle with Ginny and the boys, she was surprised to note that Ron wasn’t nearly as upset as she thought he would be. Sure, he was definitely disappointed, but his happiness for Harry outshined that.

“You sure you’re ok mate?” Harry asked, a concerned look on his face as he looked at his best friend who was prone to get quite upset when jealous. 

Ron just smiled and said, “I’m sure. With you as seeker, Gryffindor’s got the Quidditch cup in the bag. Besides, I’m more of a keeper anyway.” 

Harry beamed. 

“Congratulations, Harry”, came two identical voices. Fred and George appeared on either side of Harry, and rubbed his head affectionately, effectively making his already messy hair even messier.

“We knew you’d get it”, said Fred.

“It would have been a crime if you hadn’t”, added George. 

“You should’ve seen Oliver when you flew”.

“It was like he was….”

“ In a dream or something”.

“I think he’s in love with you, Harry”.

At that moment, Colin Creevey, a tiny first year Gryffindor student, came running over to the small group. 

“That was really exciting, Harry! You’re a great flyer, did you know that? I thought you were gonna fall off your broom when you made that last dive, but you pulled it off! I can’t believe that you can actually fly on broomsticks! I’d never seen Quidditch before. Is that what it’s like? Do you think I could have a picture?” 

The small boy smiled up at Harry with such a big and enthusiastic smile that Hermione couldn’t help but smile herself. 

“Looks like you’ve gotten yourself a fan, Harry”, laughed Fred. 

“Er. Sure, Colin” Harry sheepishly replied to the boy, his face bright red. 

“I’ll take the picture if you’d like”, offered Hermione. Seeing how she was muggle-born, like Colin, she was the most obvious person for the task. “I’m familiar with how cameras work.”

Colin's smile grew if it was even possible, even bigger. “Thanks, Hermione”.

Right as the two boys got into position for Hermione to take the picture, a much more unpleasant voice called over to them.

“Well well well. Looky here. Potter’s got himself a fan club already. I wonder if it will make up for when he falls off his broom,” drawled Draco Malfoy as he walked over with some of his Slytherin cronies.

If there was one thing that Hermione didn’t miss about Hogwarts, it was Draco Malfoy. The boy was just plain nasty, never wasting an opportunity to throw insults at her and her friends. Ron insisted that everyone in Slytherin was like that, but Hermione felt like she had to disagree. She had had many pleasant conversations with other Slytherins the past year. Tom Riddle was always kind to her when they saw each other at Slughorn’s meetings and dinners, and Daphne Greengrass, a Slytherin 2nd year, was quite nice to her and even helped Hermione with her bag when it split down the middle in the library last year. 

Malfoy seemed to bring out the worst qualities in his housemates, though. They all stood behind him and sneered at the little group of Gryffindors. 

“I’m not surprised you didn’t make the team, Weaselbee. You were never much of a flyer”, he continued, smugly. 

“Leave him alone, you git”, Fred snarled. 

Malfoy ignored him and turned his attention back to Harry. 

“I don’t know if you know this, Potter, but I was just chosen to be seeker for Slytherin. Also,” He puffed his chest out to make himself seem more important, but he really just ended up making himself look ridiculous. “My father provided the entire Slytherin team with Nimbus 2001’s. Be prepared to be utterly embarrassed when we slaughter you at our first match.”

Hermione snorted, loudly. Everyone’s heads turned to look at her. “Of course you made the team, Malfoy. You basically bribed yourself into a spot.” Malfoy’s smirk faded into a look of fury as Hermione continued. “At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in. They got in on pure talent.”

Harry, Ron, and the twins laughed out loud, and Neville and Ginny giggled quietly. Collin looked at Hermione with wide eyes and raised his camera. Fred quickly pushed the camera back down. Even some of Malfoy’s possy chuckled a bit. Draco narrowed his eyes at Hermione, his lip curled. 

“No one cares what you have to say. You filthy little mudblood.” 

The change in the atmosphere was instantaneous. Hermione’s friends stopped laughing. Ginny and Neville gasped in horror. Harry and the twins immediately started yelling at Malfoy. Ron drew his wand and was about to curse Malfoy before someone called out to them. 

“Hang on hang on. What’s going on here chaps?” came the smooth voice of Tom Riddle. The older boy was walking across the grass towards them, followed by some of his friends. 

“He called Hermione a mudblood”, yelled Ron, pointing his wand at Malfoy, who did not look the least bit ashamed. 

Tom’s face became blank. He stared at Malfoy, who wiped the smirk off of his face. 

“You shouldn’t use such language, Draco”, Tom calmly said. “I would have thought we were in an age where such derogatory terms were no longer in use.” He was using a tone that would sound appropriate for chastising a small child. Malfoy bowed his head, his face red. 

Tom then turned to Hermione, a soft expression on his previously blank face. 

“I apologize for Draco’s behavior”, he told her kindly. “I can assure you that he will be dealt with.” Malfoy gulped audibly, his eyes wide. Tom didn’t seem to notice this, or if he had, he chose to ignore it. 

“It’s alright”, said Hermione. She didn’t even know what being a mudblood meant, so she wasn’t hurt or anything. She could tell by how everyone reacted that it was bad though. Harry had wrapped his arm around her shoulders as if to comfort her, and while she appreciated the gesture, she didn’t really need it. 

“Nonsense”, chuckled Tom. “You were just about to apologize to Hermione, weren’t you Draco?” 

Malfoy looked as though he would rather be anywhere else but here. “Sorry Granger”, he spat out. 

“Ah ah ah”, said Tom with a look of glee on his face at Malfoy’s misery. 

Malfoy scowled. “Sorry Hermione”, he mumbled, as if her name was disgusting. 

“That’s better”, Tom smiled. The group stood in an awkward silence for a while. Even the Weasley twins didn’t seem to know what to say. 

“Thank you very much for your apology, Draco”, said Hermione, genially. Malfoy just glared at her. Tom, however, looked very pleased. 

“Now that that’s settled”, the older boy said. “We’d best be heading off. Draco and I have some things to discuss.” He smiled at the blonde boy, but Hermione noticed that the smile didn’t seem to reach his eyes, which were still hard and cold. 

“Yeah”, said Harry, looking very unsure of what to say. “We’d better get going too.” 

The Gryffindors quickly nodded their heads, happy to get out of that awkward silence, and started off towards the castle. While the rest of the group seemed to push that encounter pretty much entirely out of their minds by the time they reached the castle doors, Hermione couldn’t help but look back to the Slytherins they just left behind. 

She could barely see their small forms from how far away they were, but she thought she saw Tom Riddle look back at her. She quickly followed her friends into the warm castle. Collin was quick to leave the group. Hermione guessed the confrontation with the Slytherins freaked him out a bit. The rest of them headed to the Gryffindor common room to share the good news of Harry making the team with everyone.

“What’s a mudblood?” Hermione asked, suddenly remembering the word that caused her friends to become so upset. Ginny visibly flinched when she said that word. Neville avoided looking at her. The twins and Ron looked angry again. Harry gave her a sympathetic look. 

“I guess you wouldn’t know what it means”, Harry sighed. “He shouldn’t have called you that. You’re ten times better than Malfoy…”

“What does it mean, Harry?” Hermione interrupted him. Harry didn’t seem to want to tell her. He looked to the twins for help. 

“It’s a foul foul word”, said Fred.

“That certain people”, said George.

“In other words, purebloods who think they’re better than everyone else”

“Use to describe muggle-borns.”

Hermione stilled. She looked down at her shoes. She figured it had something to do with her being muggle-born. Malfoy seemed to love pointing out that she wasn’t “from their world”. She wiped at her eyes so that her friends wouldn’t notice her tears. 

They noticed. 

“Don’t listen to anything that Malfoy tells you, Hermione”, said Neville, wrapping her in a big hug. 

“Yeah”, said Harry, joining the hug. “Riddle was right. Blood purity being an important issue is a thing of the past.”

“You have just as much right to be here as Malfoy does”, added Ginny. 

“Even more so”, Ron chimed in. “You’re way smarter than him.”

“And a better person”, said the twins in unison, joining the hug and pulling Ron and Ginny into it with them. 

Tears continued to flow from Hermione’s face, but not from sadness anymore. Standing there, in the arms of people who genuinely cared about her, made her feel happier than she had in a long time.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has read my story so far! It means the world!
> 
> I do not own Harry Potter at all, that right belongs to J. K. Rowling.

November 1992

 

“AND POTTER HAS THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WINS!” shouted commentator Lee Jordan.

The entire Gryffindor side of the stands erupted into thunderous cheers. Ron and Ginny jumped up and down like maniacs. Colin was snapping picture after picture of the team in the air that was surrounding Harry in a giant group hug. Seamus was trying to throw himself over the side of the stand to give Harry a high five. Dean held onto the back of Seamus’ shirt to prevent him from throwing himself to his death and was waving a scarlet Gryffindor banner that he had made. 

Hermione cheered with everyone else until her voice became hoarse. She had to admit that, even though she was terribly worried for Harry’s safety the entire game, she had a wonderful time watching the match. She was starting to see why so many people enjoyed it as much as they did. She was never getting on a broom herself anytime soon, though. 

Harry smiled and waved at his friends once he was released from the death grip of his team.

“Good job, Harry. Truly magnificent”, shouted Oliver Wood over the voices of the crowd. “We’re going to win the cup this year. I just know it.” Harry beamed and searched the crowd for five specific people. 

There they were. On their feet in the first row of one of the stands were his parents, Professor Lupin, and their two other best friends, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew. He waved to them. His mother waved back and blew him a kiss. His dad and Sirius cupped their hands around their mouths and cheered louder than anyone else in the crowd. Peter nearly took off Professor Lupin’s head with how enthusiastically he was waving his hand. 

Harry was so happy that they could all come and see him in his first match. He could still remember the letter he got from his dad saying how proud he was of him. When his parents, Sirius, and Peter walked through the doors in the great hall, he was speechless. His mother wrapped him in the biggest of hugs and his dad ruffled his hair. He couldn’t wait to talk to them all once he got back to the ground.

\-------------------------------------------------

While the rest of the castle was sleeping peacefully that night, Gryffindor tower was doing no such thing. It was a wonder that McGonagall wasn’t barging into the common room to keep it down with how much noise they were making. 

Confetti was everywhere, people were waving around the banners that Dean had made for the match, and Fred and George even managed to sneak up some food from the kitchens. It was a pretty impressive party, to say the least. 

Right when it seemed like the festivities were dying down, music started to play. Hermione looked around for the source of the noise and found George standing in the middle of the common room on a table holding a wireless above his head that was playing a really catchy song. 

Fred grabbed Angelina Johnson’s hand (a chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team) and pulled her onto the dance floor to dance. The crowd parted to give them some room. George hopped down from the table and he and Lee Jordan pulled the two other Gryffindor chasers, Alicia Spinnet and Katie Bell, onto the dance floor as well. More and more people joined the dance and, before long, a circle of dancing partners was formed. 

“Switch!” Fred suddenly cried out, and everyone on the dance floor switched partners. 

Hermione stood off to the side with Harry and Ron, laughing and clapping along to the music. Poor Neville was pulled into the dance early on by Parvati Patil and was therefore trapped with the dancers. Hermione was just waving to Ginny, who was dancing with a very enthusiastic, albeit very clumsy, Colin Creevey, when Fred called out “Switch!” again. 

Before she knew what was happening, Hermione found Fred standing in front of her and holding her hands. She tried to pull away, but he just laughed and started to bring her onto the dance floor. She looked to Harry and Ron for help, but they just laughed at her misfortune. Harry had the gall to give her a little wave while he smirked at her. 

Hermione was a natural at many things, but dancing was definitely not one of them. She was awkward and kept bumping into people. She stepped on Fred’s toes multiple times, but he just laughed off her apologies. 

She did not know how long she was in that circle and had no idea how many people she was passed to. She remembered dancing with George and Lee Jordan right after Fred. She also danced with Seamus, who was just as abysmal at dancing as she was, and Neville, who was surprisingly good. 

“Hey Hermione”, came the awkward voice of Harry. Hermione gasped and looked up at her new partner that she didn’t realize was her best friend. 

“Harry! When did you join us?”

“Ginny pulled me in”, Harry shrugged. Hermione searched the crowd and found Ginny, who was looking over at Harry and quite pink in the face. Hermione smiled at her. She thought that Ginny’s crush on Harry was pretty adorable, and was glad that the younger girl was able to ask Harry to dance with her. 

Just then, Seamus fell over, pulling his partner, a fourth-year girl who Hermione didn’t know, over with him. It wouldn’t have been that big of a deal if Seamus wasn’t so close to Neville, who then toppled into Fred, who then fell into Lavender, who then ran into Colin, who then pushed Hermione away from Harry.

Hermione would have fallen completely on her bum if it weren’t for the speedy reflexes of Ron, who was standing on the sidelines and quickly caught her. 

“Oi! Be careful mate!” Ron yelled to Seamus, who was sheepishly helping his very miffed dancing partner up off the floor. 

“Thanks, Ron”, Hermione told her friend. Ron blinked, his ears turning red, and quickly helped her onto her feet. 

“No problem ‘Mione”, he said. 

“Would you care to dance?” Hermione suddenly asked him, surprising herself. 

Ron stared at her, a terrified look on his face. “I..uh...I’m not very good”, he stammered. 

Hermione grinned. “Neither am I”. And with that, she rejoined the fray of dancers, Ron’s hand in hers. 

Ron was right when he said he wasn’t that good of a dancer, but at least he was better than Seamus. Hermione found, to her surprise, that even though Neville was better at dancing and Fred was more entertaining and energetic, she enjoyed dancing with Ron the most out of everyone. She had no idea why she thought this, and probably wouldn’t for a long time, but she enjoyed the moment nonetheless. 

\---------------------------

Ron was in a very bad mood that next Monday. They had all had a lovely time the past Saturday with their celebration of Gryffindor’s win, but something happened in potions that Monday that turned Ron sour. 

While Hermione didn’t agree with the way Ron had handled himself, she had to admit that she understood why he was so upset with what transpired. Slughorn had invited Harry into the Slug Club. 

The entire lesson was comprised of comments made by Slughorn about Harry’s flying. Slughorn was very impressed and made it well known. He didn’t seem to mind that his own house lost the match. He just went on and on about how Harry was going to be a huge Quidditch star one day and how Gryffindor picked the perfect person to be their seeker. 

Harry appreciated the comments at first, but even he was wishing for them to stop once class actually started. Ron was very quiet for the entirety of that class. Hermione knew that being known as the friend of Hermione “brightest witch of her age” Granger and Harry “incredible Quidditch player” Potter was very hard for him. 

Harry’s invitation was what really threw Ron over the edge. He grumbled throughout the rest of the lesson and slammed his fire seeds into the potion he and Harry were making without counting how many he used and with such force that it created an explosion of fire worthy of Seamus Finnigan. Harry and Ron were close enough to the cauldron that their eyebrows were burnt off, and they had to be sent to the hospital wing. 

Hermione didn’t think that getting his eyebrows burnt off would help with Ron’s mood, and she was proven correct when she saw the boys again later at dinner. Both of them looked grumpy, and while Harry plopped down beside her and Neville to eat, Ron sat as far away from them as he could. 

“What’s got his knickers in a twist?” asked Ginny, who left her friends to come over once she saw Ron storm obnoxiously into the great hall. 

“He’s mad I’m a better Quidditch player than him”, Harry snapped as he stabbed at his potatoes with his fork. 

“Ooh, Harry. You didn’t tell him you thought that, did you?” Hermione asked, horrified. 

“No”, said Harry, unconvincingly. 

“Harry”, Hermione admonished. 

“I didn’t!” Harry said defensively, holding his hands up in surrender. “I just didn’t correct him when he said it.” Hermione slapped her hand to her forehead and shook her head. 

“What?” Harry snapped. “He burnt my eyebrows off!”

“Well they’re grown back now”, Ginny said, trying to calm him down. 

Harry huffed and abandoned his food to cross his arms over his chest like a child. 

“Are you gonna apologize to him?” asked Neville.

“No way!” said Harry. “Not until he apologizes for being a git”. 

Hermione was very annoyed with Harry’s attitude, and Ron’s for that matter. They were both being incredibly immature. 

“So I’m guessing you’re attending Professor Slughorn’s dinner this Friday, then”, Hermione said, rolling her eyes. 

“Yes”, Harry answered her, returning his attention to his brutalized potatoes. 

That next week was the longest of Hermione’s life. Harry and Ron ignored each other for the entire time, and she was forced to split her time going back and forth between them. It was incredibly annoying and she found herself wishing for them to make up already. Neither of them would budge though. Even though they both told her they really weren’t that angry anymore, their pride got in the way of them reconciling. 

Therefore, Hermione found herself sitting at Slughorn’s big table that Friday night with Harry by her side. She could tell Harry was regretting his decision to come to the dinner rather than make up with Ron, as he was quiet the entire time and looked as though he would rather be anywhere else. 

Harry was not having a good time. Hermione didn’t really talk about the dinners she went to, as to not upset Ron, but he thought that she would have warned him about how boring they were. If he knew, he probably would have been more prepared or just not have come at all. At least the food was good. Slughorn had great taste in pudding. 

“I saw you in the match last Saturday, Harry. You were quite good. Just wherever did you learn to fly?” came the smooth, friendly voice of Tom Riddle. 

All eyes were on Harry, and he quickly struggled to swallow the big bite of pudding he had just taken. 

“Well….er….My dad played……”

“Ah yes!” Interrupted Slughorn. “I remember your dad, Harry m’boy. He was a natural, just like yourself. Such a shame he didn’t do anything with that talent”. Slughorn stroked his mustache, thoughtfully. 

“Er...yes”, Harry awkwardly continued. “Well...erm….my dad played when he was at school and um…. Taught me how to fly when I was really little. I just picked it up from him, I guess.” Harry did not like all this attention on him. He didn’t mind attention when he was playing quidditch or with his friends, but in front of a bunch of strangers (who were all older than him, by the way) it was something he really didn’t enjoy. 

They sat in awkward silence for a bit. Harry stared at his food. Luckily, Hermione came to his rescue. 

“What about you, Tom? Last we met, you were trying to discover more about your parents. Did you find anything?” she asked, seeming to be genuinely curious.

Harry blinked, surprised. He wasn’t aware that Riddle was trying to find out more about his past. He knew that he was an orphan, everyone did, but he didn’t really think anything of it. Harry supposed it made sense. If he were an orphan, he would want to know as much about his parents as he could. 

“Nothing really of note, I’m afraid”, Tom replied with an easygoing smile. “There don’t seem to be any wizard Riddles, unfortunately. I have received a few leads on my mother, however, so there might be something there. I don’t want to bore you all with the details, though”. Riddle laughed, and most of the people at the table joined in. Harry did not. He was already quite bored. 

Harry spent the next few minutes trying to get some of the caramel out of a piece of chocolate. He didn’t have anything against caramel, he was just bored and looking for something to do. He did notice, however, that Tom seemed to be entirely focused on one person throughout the entire night. 

Hermione. 

While he would turn his attention back to the rest of the table for a bit of the conversation, his eyes were fixed solely on Hermione for the majority of the night. Hermione didn’t seem to notice. Harry did not like that at all. 

“Blimey! Look at the time”, Harry suddenly said, looking at his watch. “It’s gotten quite late, and I have an early Quidditch practice tomorrow. Best be heading off”. The entire table stared at Harry, confused. It was only 9:00, and Harry didn’t even have a Quidditch practice the next day. Hermione looked as though she was going to tell him so, but Harry quickly added on so she wouldn’t have the chance to. “Thank you so much for inviting me, Professor. It was a pleasure. Hermione?” He gestured for her to take his hand. He hoped she would take it and go back to the common room with him. Not only did he want to get out of there as soon as possible, he felt very uncomfortable with the way Riddle was looking at Hermione and wanted her far away from him. 

Even though she looked incredibly confused at his sudden outburst, Hermione thankfully took Harry’s hand and stood up from the table as well. 

“Er...Thank you Professor”, she said before Harry tugged her out the door. 

“That was the most boring night of my life!” Harry gasped as he and Hermione headed back to Gryffindor tower. 

“I’m guessing that you’re not coming to any more dinners then”, she laughed. 

“You can bet I won’t. And”, he paused and thought a bit before continuing. “I’d rather you wouldn’t either”.

“What?” Hermione stopped in her tracks. “Why?”

“I….uh”, Harry started, nervously scratching the back of his neck. “I didn’t like how Riddle was looking at you”.

“How was he looking at me?” Hermione asked, utterly confused. 

“I dunno. It was just creepy, and he was doing it the entire time”.

“He was probably just staring into space”, Hermione shook her head. “Tom’s very busy. He most likely has a lot on his mind.”

“No no no”, said Harry, desperately trying to get across to her the uneasy feeling he had. “I can’t explain it, Hermione, but he was definitely staring at you and it was in a weird way. You’ve got to listen to me”.

Hermione didn’t believe what Harry was saying about Tom, but she hated seeing her friend so upset. 

“Fine”, she relented. “I won’t go to any more of Professor Slughorn’s dinners.”

Harry sighed in relief, and they continued their way to Gryffindor tower. 

“How was the Slug Club?” asked a very moody Ron once they entered the common room through the portrait hole. 

“Absolutely dreadful”, Harry answered, throwing himself next to Ron on the sofa he was sitting on. 

Harry continued to complain to Ron about how boring the evening was, their week-long argument completely forgotten. Hermione shook her head in complete amazement. She couldn’t believe how quickly they made up after all the drama she had been forced to endure. 

“You’re so lucky you didn’t go”, Harry was telling Ron. “You’re gonna have to help me and Hermione come up with excuses for why we can’t ever go to anymore dinners again”.

Ron looked up at Hermione in surprise. “You’re not gonna go anymore?”

Hermione moved to sit on the sofa, and they made space for her in-between them. 

“I found that there are better things to do with my time”, Hermione said with a smile. She winked at Harry, who grinned at her. 

“Well that’s bloody right”, said Ron, beaming. 

Hermione made good on her promise to Harry, and the pair of them didn’t attend Slughorn’s dinners for the rest of the year. While Ron was delighted by this, a certain Slytherin felt quite the opposite.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's kind of a weird one, as it’s entirely from Tom’s perspective. It’s important though, cause it explains his reasoning behind why he is the way he is and his conflicts over Hermione. 
> 
> Thank you, everyone, for your kindness and support! 
> 
> All rights of Harry Potter belong to J.K. Rowling.

September 1993

Tom Riddle was a mysterious person. While he was well-liked by pretty much everybody who met him, no one really knew what to make of him overall. He was incredibly smart and the first muggle-born to be sorted into Slytherin in a long time. 

At least, that was what everyone thought. Tom, however, knew from the beginning that there was no way that he was Muggle-born. He was by far the brightest in his year, and extremely gifted in magic. Therefore, he dedicated himself to proving to others that his parents were wizards. He spent hours in the library, pouring over records of wizarding history, but found no sign of any Riddles. 

He originally had no intention of looking for his mother, as she had died giving birth to him and wouldn’t have died if she was a witch, but he finally decided to try once his search for his father reached its dead end. With only his middle name, “Marvolo”, which was the name of his mother's’ father, to go by, his search was surprisingly quick and easy.

His mother came from the ancient, noble house of Gaunt, or at least, the ancient, formerly noble, house of Gaunt. The Gaunts used to be wealthy and highly looked upon, but they gambled away everything they had, forcing themselves to live in poverty. Tom was disgusted. He was horrified that his mother married a muggle and came from such a foolish family. There was no way that he was taking the Gaunt’s family name. 

There was one piece of interesting information that Tom found, however, while looking more into the history of the Gaunts. It just so happened that the Gaunts happened to be distant descendants of Salazar Slytherin himself. 

For a split second, Tom was shocked. The feeling instantly passed, though, as everything seemed to click into place. That was why he was so gifted in magic. That was why he could talk to snakes when no one else could. That was why he was special. 

Tom felt hatred as he never had before for his father. How dare his mother forced him to be tainted by a filthy muggle. Because of her, he wasn’t pure. Because of her, the last heir of Slytherin (according to the records of wizard ancestry) was not pure. 

In addition to his hatred for his father, Tom felt envy towards all purebloods. Oh, how he wished he were one of them. How he wished his mother didn’t stoop to lower than dirt. He was wizarding royalty. He needed to be seen and treated as such by everyone else. 

Tom figured out all of this information at the end of his fourth year at Hogwarts. Having to deal with all of that on his mind while spending the summer at the horrible orphanage he lived at was awful. Every day, he was forced to be around all those naive muggle children and staff. They disgusted him. He escaped the orphanage every chance he got and went into muggle London. He didn’t enjoy those muggles any more than he did the ones in the orphanage, but at least he was able to be more distant from them. 

He also found himself frequently visiting Diagon Alley. At least there were wizards there. He did find himself annoyed by the shoppers he saw, though. If only they knew that the heir of one of the most powerful wizards of all time was in their midst. They would be bowing down to him. That thought gave him an idea. He already had a pretty large following at Hogwarts of those who believed that muggles were scum, but to achieve the status of being adored that he so dearly desired, he would have to expand his ranks. 

But who to start with? The only adults he knew in the wizarding world were his professors and the shopkeepers at Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. He doubted any of them would really be interested in what he had in mind. There was always Lucius Malfoy, Draco’s father and member of the Board of Governors at Hogwarts. If Draco’s attitude was anything to go by, then his father should have the same “pureblood entitlement” mindset as his son. 

Tom was just thinking of how best to contact Lucius Malfoy when he saw a dark street that he had never been down before in Diagon Alley. There was an old wooden sign on one of the buildings framing the alleyway that read Knockturn Alley. 

Undeterred by the creepy atmosphere of the area, Tom walked down Knockturn Alley. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but it sure wasn’t what he saw. It was like a smaller, less, crowded, gloomier Diagon Alley down there. It was only one street long, but it still had quite a few shops, each of which had windows so thick with dust, that you couldn’t even read the name of the store. 

A hag with a huge wart on her nose tried to grab his arm, but he pulled it away, wrinkling his nose, and stepped into the nearest shop. Dust immediately invaded his sinuses, and he coughed a few times before looking around. Though the shop was full of dust, Tom could tell it was very organized. Shelves upon shelves were lined with seemingly normal objects. A large cabinet stood in the corner by the shop window. On the counter in the middle of the store, sat a little nameplate that read “Borgin and Burkes”. Next to the nameplate was an opal necklace that seemed to shimmer in the very little light that was present in the gloomy area. 

“I wouldn't touch that if I were you”, came a low voice from the back of the store. “Not if you value living, that is”. 

A man with a hooked nose, greasy black hair, and a bat-like cape came into view. The man looked very uninterested in having a customer in his shop and seemed as though he would rather be anywhere else but there.

“I’m assuming it’s cursed”, said Tom, leaning in closer to the necklace, careful not to touch it. 

“Young boys such as yourself have no business here”, said the greasy man. “I suggest you leave”. 

Tom didn’t leave. He found himself interested in this depressed man. 

“Are you Mr. Borgin or Mr. Burke?’ Tom asked. 

“Neither”, sneered the man.

“What is your name then, sir?”

The man paused before answering, looking completely annoyed with Tom. “Snape. Severus Snape”. 

Tom smiled. “Pleasure to meet you, Severus. May I call you that?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “I suppose you are interested in the dark arts, are you not?”

Snape gave the smallest of nods. 

“I am as well. I have a proposition that I think you might be interested in”.

\----------------------------------------------

October 1993

“I have big plans this year, my friends.” 

Tom stood in the middle of the Slytherin common room addressing most of his house. The 1st and 2nd years were the only ones not present. The 3rd through 7th years were watching him with bated breath, none of them making a sound, their attention fixed solely on him. Tom was still reeling from the information he had learned from Severus Snape. 

Snape was in Slytherin house, like Tom, when he was in school, and had learned many secrets about the house that Tom had previously thought to be myths. He also had a supreme grudge against mudbloods, which was why he was interested in what Tom had to say in the first place, and why he divulged the information he knew to him. 

Right when he got back to Hogwarts, Tom immediately began looking into what Snape had told him. It took a few weeks, but he had finally found what he was looking for. 

“We are going to purge the school of all those who are unworthy to study magic. Then, we will purge the entire wizarding world!”

The common room roared with cheers. Tom noticed that Draco Malfoy and his friends all looked particularly pleased. He smiled. He knew getting his classmates on his side would be a piece of cake. They were all so gullible and obsessed with their superiority over mudbloods and muggles, that they immediately pledged their loyalty to him when he announced his title as Heir of Slytherin at the start of term. 

“No more mudbloods! No more mudbloods!” they cheered. 

Tom stepped away from the center of the crowd and into the shadows. They didn’t notice that he was gone, as they were so focused on celebrating what he had just announced. He entered his empty dormitory to think in peace. 

He felt happier than he had in a long time. He was taking his first steps to being seen as the marvel that he was. Something was holding him back, though. Why was he feeling so conflicted?

It was Hermione Granger.

Oh, how he wished that the girl weren’t a mudblood. He cringed when he called her that in his head, but it was true. She was a mudblood and there was nothing he could do to change that, no matter how much he wished he could. She was impure and he should be looking forward to putting her in her place like he was planning to do with every other mudblood in existence. 

Hermione was special though. She was brilliant, like him. He had heard the teachers rave about her, and he saw for himself how intelligent she was when she went to Slughorn’s dinners. There was just something about her. The way she held herself with the confidence of a lion, the way she stood up to anyone who crossed her, the fire that could be plainly seen in her eyes. 

He remembered how elated he was when he found out that she would be coming to Slughorn’s dinners back in his third year. She was a spitfire, eager to join in the conversations and he felt like he was able to catch a glimpse into who she really was. All of that changed when Potter joined the Slug Club. 

Potter. Tom didn’t know what it was about the scrawny dark-haired boy, but something in him felt extreme rage whenever the boy’s name was mentioned. Even when he first met the boy on the train, he felt more hatred for him than he had for anyone before that, including the fools at the orphanage. 

He knew that Potter was the reason Hermione stopped coming to Slughorn’s dinners. He had confronted her about it, but she just said she was too busy to attend. He could tell though, by the way her eyes darted around nervously, that there was another reason other than what she was telling him. He wanted to rip off Potter’s head, but he knew how devastated Hermione would be if he did so. 

He groaned, laying his head against his pillow. He was intoxicated by her. He wanted her. He needed her. He had to be around her. When he was with her, he felt stronger, more powerful. Why oh why did he have to be so fixated on a mudblood? He couldn’t afford to be. To cleanse the wizarding world, all mudbloods must be eliminated. 

That included Hermione Granger.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am still in shock at the fact that people are actually reading and liking my story! Thank you so much everyone!
> 
> J. K. Rowling owns Harry Potter, not me.

October 31st, 1993

 

“It happened. It really happened. I’m finally full”, said Ron, groaning and leaning against Harry as they walked out of the Great Hall with the rest of the student body. 

“It was bound to happen sometime, mate”, Harry grinned. 

“It’s a miracle, that’s what it is”, said Ginny, rolling her eyes at her obnoxious brother. 

Hermione giggled. She was feeling rather full herself, and couldn’t blame Ron for eating as much as he did. Dumbledore really outdid himself with that years Halloween feast. 

The crowd of people in front of them suddenly stopped. Harry and Ron ran into a fifth-year girl in front of them, who scowled at them. 

“Why did we stop?” asked Neville. 

“Beats me”, Harry shrugged. 

Someone up ahead screamed. 

The five young Gryffindors looked at each other in alarm. Harry immediately started shoving people out of the way to get to the front of the crowd. Hermione, Ginny, and Neville were quick to follow. Ron took a little longer because of his bloated stomach. 

When they finally made it to the front of the group, they stopped in horror. Ginny gasped and put her hands over her mouth. Neville hid behind Harry. Ron looked like he was going to vomit. 

There, hanging from her tail on a torch bracket, was a frozen Mrs. Norris. Mrs. Norris was Filch, the caretaker’s, cat. He was a dreadful man, and his cat was equally annoying, but no one had ever wanted harm to come to either of them. 

Hermione noticed something glistening on the wall underneath the body of the cat. 

She nudged Harry. “There’s something written there”. 

In what appeared to be red ink, on the wall, was written “The chamber of secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir beware”.

“That’s blood”, whispered Neville, terrified.

“Enemies of the heir beware”, came a drawling voice. Hermione turned to see Draco Malfoy looking at the words a little ways away from her. “That means you mudbloods”. He turned to her and grinned. 

A few students in the crowd started to cry. In a second, Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick, Slughorn, and Sprout were at the front of the crowd. They looked at the scene before them, completely shocked. 

“Students, to your dormitories!” Professor McGonagall announced. 

The terrified students were more than happy to oblige. 

Percy Weasley pushed himself to the front of the crowd, grabbing Ginny’s hand and pulling her along with him. 

“Gryffindor’s follow me! Excuse me I’m Head Boy!” 

The students dispersed. Hermione noticed Tom Riddle, who had been named a prefect that year, help to lead some of the Slytherin students down to their common room in the dungeons. She felt bad for the Slytherins. She would not want to be down by the dungeons after what they just witnessed. 

“What’s the chamber of secrets?” Harry asked her. 

“No clue”, Hermione shook her head, for once without an answer. 

\---------------------------------------------------

The next few days were filled with complete terror for the residents of Hogwarts. Dumbledore announced to the students that there was no need to worry, but to make sure that they still stay on guard. 

After the first attack on Mrs. Norris, nothing exciting happened for a while. There were no more attacks or messages written on the wall in blood. 

“It was probably just a prank”, said Ron as they walked to the great hall for lunch one day. 

“But who would do such a thing to poor Mrs. Norris?” asked Hermione. 

Ron scoffed. “Are you kidding? That thing's a demon!” Seeing Hermione’s upset expression, he continued. “And it’s not like she’s dead. She’s only petrified. Madame Pomfrey will fix her right up, you’ll see.”

Even though she was convinced the situation was more serious than just a prank, Hermione didn’t argue with Ron. Neville had been a terrified wreck since the first attack, and she didn’t want to worry him even more. She looked over at Harry and could tell that he agreed with her. Like her though, he didn’t say anything. 

“All I’m saying is WOAH!” yelped Ron as he tripped over something on the stairs and fell down to the story below. 

“Ron!” Hermione gasped. Harry and Neville ran down the stairs to check on Ron. Hermione started to follow them, but her foot hit something. Probably the thing that tripped up Ron. She looked down and screamed. The boys at the bottom of the stairs immediately ran up to her aid, and they all stared in shock at the scene before them. 

It was the petrified body of Justin Finch-Fletchley, a Hufflepuff student in their year. He was lying face up on the step Ron tripped over with a terrified expression on his face. 

“Oh my god”, whispered Hermione. “Oh my god. Justin”. 

Harry grabbed her hand and pulled her down the steps with Neville and Ron close behind. The four Gryffindors ran non stop until they burst into the great hall and up to the high table where Professor Dumbledore sat. The entire hall quieted down when they rushed in, and all eyes were on the four of them. 

“There’s been another attack”, Harry gasped, out of breath from running. 

Murmurs ran up and down the hall. Professor Dumbledore’s expression became very grave. 

“Who has been attacked, Harry?” He asked, seriously. 

“Justin Finch-Fletchley”, Hermione answered for him, shakily. 

Dumbledore stood up and addressed the hall.

“Prefects lead your houses to your dormitories.” The students immediately followed his order, each person trying to get out of the hall as fast as they could. Percy Weasley could be heard screaming for everyone to get in line. Dumbledore then turned to the group of four students in front of him and said: “Show me where he is”. 

Hermione didn’t want to see Justin’s lifeless body again, and she had a feeling that Neville didn’t want to either. The poor boy was in tears. 

“You and Ron go show Dumbledore, Harry. Neville and I will meet you guys in the common room”. She said. Harry nodded and gave her arm a quick squeeze. Hermione and Neville ran to join the other Gryffindors that were pushing out of the hall, while Harry and Ron lead Dumbledore and the rest of the teachers out the back way. 

\---------------------------------------------------------

Justin was the first student to be attacked, but there were more after him. Colin Creevey was the next victim. Professor McGonagall found him on the floor in a corridor one night. He was in his nightclothes and was probably on his way to the kitchens for a midnight snack. 

A couple more students were attacked after Colin. The students were from different houses and were in different years. The only thing they all had in common was that they all were muggleborns. 

While there were no more messages written by the heir of Slytherin, it was the general consensus that the attacks were all caused by him. 

“Or her”, Hermione said when they were discussing the attacks one night. “The heir could be a girl”. 

Harry and Ron rolled their eyes. The three of them were sitting in the boy's dormitory with Neville, Dean, Seamus, Lavender, and Parvati. Ever since Colin’s attack, the eight Gryffindor third years had taken to discussing the attacks to try to figure out what’s going on. 

“Well that just narrows it down”, said Ron, sarcastically. 

“What we do know is that the heir is in Slytherin”, Harry said, trying to get things back on track. 

“Not necessarily”, Parvati cut it. “The heir could be in any house. We can’t just assume…”

“But it’s the heir of Slytherin!” Seamus interrupted, exasperatedly. “They’re most likely going to be in Slytherin”. 

“MOST likely”, Lavender said, siding with Parvati. “Not definitely”. 

Harry sighed and ran his hand through his hair, not bothering to stop the newly created debate. Hermione noticed he had bags under his eyes. They all probably did. It’s hard to sleep when there’s someone or something going around petrifying people. 

The next time the group met, they were joined by Fred, George, and Lee Jordan. Ginny wanted to come, but Ron and the twins insisted that she stay away. The twins and Lee had managed to convince Professor Binns to shed some light on the story of the chamber of secrets, and they were relaying that information to the rest of the group. 

“So there’s a monster roaming the school that’s attacking muggleborns?” asked a very pale Neville. 

“Yep”, said Fred. 

“And apparently only the heir of Slytherin can control it”, added George. 

“This is like straight out of a horror movie”, Dean muttered. The only person in the group who knew what Dean was talking about was Hermione, as they were both muggleborns, but everyone else was so engrossed in their current situation that they didn’t ask what movies were. 

“There have been a few times that the chamber had been opened in the past”, said Lee. “But they were always thought of as myths before now”. 

“Why did Slytherin want to kill muggleborns in the first place?” Hermione asked. “What did he have against him?”

Everyone else looked a little awkward. Besides Hermione and Dean, everyone else in that room was either a half-blood or a pure-blood. Finally, Harry spoke up.

“You know how Malfoy believes that purebloods are better than everyone else?” he asked. Hermione nodded. “Well, Slytherin was like that too. He believed that muggleborns shouldn’t be taught at Hogwarts, but the other founders disagreed. He said that muggleborns were unworthy of magic and were not to be trusted. They got in this huge fight and that was when they said Slytherin made the chamber, right Fred?”

“Yeah”, said Fred. “He was upset that his friends wouldn’t listen to him”.

“So he decided to make it possible for one of his descendants to do what he was unable to”, said George. 

“And now someone has”, Fred finished. 

They all stayed in silence for a while. Hermione wondered how on earth anyone could be so cruel to wish for the deaths of children. At least no one at Hogwarts had died. 

“I bet it’s Malfoy”, Ron said, suddenly.

“We’ve already been over this, Ron”, Hermione said, exasperatedly. “Malfoy may be a pure-blooded bigot and a git, but I don’t think he has it in himself to hurt anyone like this”. 

“I agree with Ron”, Harry said. Hermione wished he would be more sensible and not let his dislike for Malfoy cloud his judgment. 

“He’s constantly talking about how he’s wishing he could join the heir”, Seamus said, a thoughtful look on his face. 

“But really? Malfoy?” Parvati asked. “He hasn’t got the brains for something like this. He’s only a third year”. 

“Yeah”, Lavender added. “The person behind this has to be in their seventh year”. 

“You callin’ us dumb?” Ron asked, his cheeks turning red. 

And there went another meeting. Hermione wished that her classmates could be more mature and actually think about the issue at hand. It was times like this where she wished she belonged to a less emotionally driven house. 

\------------------------------------------------

As it turns out though, Hermione is just as emotional as the rest of her house. The Gryffindors and Slytherins were waiting in the potions classroom for Professor Slughorn one day when Malfoy started one of his rants about Muggle-borns. 

“I heard that people had died when the chamber was opened in the past”, he had said to his friends, who thought everything that came out of his mouth was pure gold. “What’s it gonna take for one of these mudbloods to finally bite the dust”. 

That did it for Hermione. She was just as tired of Malfoy’s comments as the rest of her class. She couldn’t believe how tactless he could be. Without a word, she got up from her seat and stood in front of the smirking blonde. 

Before he could open his mouth to utter one more thoughtless comment, she slapped him across the face. The entire room went deathly silent. Malfoy was hunched over, clutching his bright red cheek. Hermione stood still, shaking, eyes wide. She turned around to go back to her seat, still not believing what she just did. When she sat down, however, a big smile grew on her face. 

“That felt good”, she whispered to Harry, who was next to her. 

Draco Malfoy was in shock. His hand still clutched over his throbbing cheek, his eyes locked on the back of Hermione’s head. She had just hit him. She, a filthy mudblood, had just hit HIM. In class no less. 

For some reason though, Draco did not tell Slughorn of how Hermione accosted him when the round man entered the classroom a few moments later. He did not tell him during class nor after. His mind still wasn’t processing what had just happened. 

Draco found himself unable to focus on anything other than the girl who hit him. He watched her the entire rest of the class and when he saw her again at dinner. He knew his friends were concerned, but he didn’t care. He felt Tom’s gaze too but ignored it. He knew that the older boy didn’t like that he was looking at Hermione, but he didn’t want to deal with that. 

He could still feel her hand on his face. He lifted his own hand to touch the mark she had made. Part of him didn’t want the mark to fade so that he would always contain a part of her. Draco shook his head. He was going completely insane.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much, everyone, for reading my story!
> 
> All rights of Harry Potter belong to J. K. Rowling.

May 1994

 

Malfoy’s wish came true. One of the attacks was finally fatal. Myrtle Warren, a fourth-year muggleborn from Ravenclaw, was found dead in a bathroom the previous night. In the past six months, there had been many petrifications, but no deaths. All of Hogwarts was terrified. Students were locked up in their dormitories, and there was talk going around of the school being closed. 

Hermione curled up in a ball by her friends. It was her worst nightmare come true. If the school was shut down, then she would have to live out her life as a muggle. She would be alone again. Neville was crying and Ginny looked like she was about to cry. 

There hadn’t been an attack for a whole month, and Professor Sprout’s mandrakes were only a few weeks away from being picked, meaning that all of the petrified victims would wake up. Hermione should have known that the peace wouldn’t last. 

She was utterly confused. She had thought Malfoy just had been trying to mess with them when he had said that someone had died as a result of the monster in the past. What kind of monster could both petrify and kill its victims? And why would it only kill now? How come none of the other students were killed?

One by one, students started going up the stairs into their dormitories. Hermione didn’t know how any of them could even think of sleep. Harry and Ron were some of the last to leave. Ron murmured “g’night” and Harry kissed her forehead. Hermione wanted to follow them, but her mind was too awake. 

To try to get her mind off of everything, Hermione pulled out her copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. She was just breezing through it when something caught her attention. She narrowed her eyes and read the passage again. Her heart stopped. She knew exactly what the beast was. She couldn’t believe no one had figured it out sooner. She felt so stupid. She had to tell Professor Dumbledore. 

She looked around at the nearly empty common room. It’s only other inhabitants were a couple of second-year students, but they were both fast asleep. Hermione was about to exit the portrait hole when she remembered something. She ran silently up to her dormitory and opened up Lavender’s trunk. It took a bit of digging, as Lavender was pretty messy, but she finally found what she was looking for. A small compact mirror. She ran back down the stairs and exited the portrait hole into the night. 

\--------------------------------------------------

Harry instantly knew that something was off the moment he woke up. He tried to shake it off, but something still felt wrong. He went down to the common room and grabbed some breakfast that had been brought up for them to eat. He found it odd that Hermione wasn’t there. She was usually up at the crack of dawn. She had probably decided to sleep in. There was nothing normal about the past few days, so he tried to push away his feeling of unease.

When Hermione didn’t appear when everyone else awoke, he started to get concerned. Parvati and Lavender insisted that she hadn’t come to bed that previous night and Ginny said that she didn’t go to her dorm to sleep either. Before long, the entirety of Gryffindor house was looking for the bushy haired girl. They didn’t have any luck.

The only possible answer to where she was, was that she left Gryffindor tower. But Hermione was way too smart and sensible to do something stupid like that. 

Suddenly, the portrait hole opened. A very grave-looking Professor McGonagall stepped through the opening. The room went silent as they looked at their head of house. 

“Come with me, Mr. Potter”, she said to Harry, ignoring everyone else. Harry blinked in surprise but followed his teacher out of the portrait hole with Ron at his heels. 

Harry expected McGonagall to send Ron back, but she surprisingly didn’t. “I guess you’d better come too, Mr. Weasley”, she said instead. 

The boys looked at each other and followed McGonagall to wherever she was going.

“Professor”, Harry asked. “Does this have anything to do with Hermione?” McGonagall didn’t answer him, but her mouth thinned into a very small line. 

The boys soon found themselves in the hospital wing. Harry’s stomach dropped. 

No no no. Not Hermione. Please, not Hermione.

Ron went pale by his side. The two boys followed McGonagall to a bed in the very corner of the hospital wing. On that bed, lay Hermione. 

The boys froze. Their worst fears confirmed. Well, not their worst fears. She wasn’t dead, but still. They were always worried that Hermione would be attacked, as she was muggleborn, but never thought that it would actually happen. 

Harry caught a dark shape out of the corner of his eye, and he realized that someone was sitting in a chair by Hermione’s bed. It was Tom Riddle. 

“What’re you doing here?” He snapped at Riddle. Riddle looked up at him, turning his attention away from Hermione for the first time. 

The older boy did not look very good. His normally perfect hair was messy and his eyes had dark circle underneath them. He was holding Hermione’s hand. Harry did not like that at all. 

McGonagall looked aghast at Harry’s outburst. “Mr. Riddle was the one who found Ms. Granger and brought her to us”. 

“Where was she?” asked Ron. The red-haired boy gaze was focused solely on Hermione, and he wasn’t paying any attention to the heated looks that Harry was throwing Riddle’s way.

“I found her by the Headmaster’s office”, Riddle spoke up.

“What was she doing there?” Harry asked, wrinkling his brow. 

“We thought that you would have an answer to that”, said McGonagall. “As you are her best friends”. 

Harry just shook his head. “I don’t have any clue”. 

McGonagall nodded, solemnly. 

“Could we have some time with her?” Harry asked. “Alone”, he directed this rather harshly toward Riddle. Riddle glared at Harry but didn’t say anything. 

“Of course, Mr. Potter”, McGonagall said, sympathetically. “Come along Mr. Riddle”. 

Riddle clenched Hermione’s hand. Harry thought he was going to fight them, but he stood up, kissed Hermione’s forehead, and followed McGonagall out of the hospital wing. 

Harry watched Riddle leave, his eyes narrowed. Ron didn’t seem bothered by Riddle at all. He instead chose to take Riddle’s now unoccupied seat. Harry pulled a chair over to Hermione’s other side and took one of her hands. Her expression was frozen in a look of terror. Her glassy eyes were wide, and her mouth was open in a little ‘o’. Harry hated seeing that expression on her face. 

“Why Hermione?” he asked her in a soft voice. “Why did you leave the tower?” 

He wanted desperately for her to answer him or to say something to comfort him, but knew she wouldn’t. Without Hermione, he just felt lost. He contented himself to stroking the back of her hand that he was holding with his thumb, praying fruitlessly for her to wake up. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

It was midnight when Professor McGonagall finally forced the dynamic duo to leave Hermione’s side. Tom thought she would never get them to leave. Potter looked like he wanted to argue with the professor, but he relented and left without an argument. 

The ward was dark and silent when Tom walked over to the frozen girl. He hated seeing her so still, with the fire that burned within her completely absent. It physically pained him to set his basilisk on her, but after she saw him acting as the heir, he knew he had no other choice. 

He was writing a letter from the heir on the wall for Dumbledore to see when she had walked by. He had heard that the governors were thinking of closing the school down after the death of Myrtle Warren, and he knew he had to do something to keep that from happening. She had gasped in horror when she realized it was him who responsible for everything. 

She had a small compact mirror in her hand that she had been using to look around corners. He ran at her and forced her to look into the mirror as he called the basilisk to come up right behind her. 

He reached up to stroke her hair. It was surprisingly soft, for how bushy it was. He played with one of her curls and stared into her unseeing eyes. He had tried to not think about her this past year, he really did. It was a little easier, as she didn’t attend any of Slughorn’s dinners or parties, despite the old man trying to get her to go to no avail, but he found that he couldn’t get her out of his mind. He knew it was cheesy, but his heart hurt being away from her. 

He had never performed a memory charm before and was terrified to do one on her, but he knew he had no other choice. The cure for the petrified students was almost ready, and he couldn’t have her remembering anything she had witnessed that night. 

“Obliviate”, he whispered. He couldn’t tell if he had done anything at first. Suddenly, he felt her memory of her finding out the truth about him slip away from her mind. He breathed a sigh of relief. 

“I’m sorry darling”, he whispered. He leaned down and kissed her. Her lips were soft and were a beautiful rosy color when he pulled away. That’s when he decided, right then and there, that Hermione Granger was going to be his. He didn’t care that she was muggleborn. She was going to stand by his side as his Dark Lady, and no one was going to stop him from making that happen. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------

A few days later, the antidote was finished, and all of the petrified students were awoken. After going over the mysterious message left by the heir that stated that no more muggleborns would be attacked, the school governors decided not to close down the school. They positioned Aurors all around the castle though, just to be safe. 

The hospital wing was filled to the brim with the formally petrified students and their family members. Mr. and Mrs. Granger were doting on Hermione who just looked confused about everything. 

When asked what she was doing by the headmasters' office the night she was petrified, Hermione honestly answered that she had no clue. She couldn’t remember anything from that day and was horrified to learn that Myrtle Warren had died. 

None of the other petrified students suffered from memory loss, and Dumbledore looked confused himself. He told Hermione not to worry about it though, and just focus on regaining her strength. 

In addition to her parents, Hermione was surrounded by Harry, Ron, and Neville, who had given her the biggest of hugs when she had woken up. It felt good to be with her friends and family, and she relished in the feeling of being loved. 

She couldn’t help but feel like something was off about her. She couldn’t explain what it was for the life of her, but something felt weird. Her lips were tingling, but that was probably just a side effect of the potion. She pushed all thoughts of abnormality out of her mind, and just focused on being with her loved ones. 

Poor Hermione was unaware of the demon lurking outside of the hospital wing, watching her every move. A demon of a human being that had set its unwavering sights on her.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading my story and for all of your kind words! It makes me so happy to read all of your comments! 
> 
> I do not own Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling does

August 1994

 

Hermione had to admit that she started to like Quidditch after Harry joined the Gryffindor team at Hogwarts. She went to more games because of this and even started to forget that the players were in mortal danger. 

That was why she accepted Harry’s and Ron’s invitation to join them and their families at the Quidditch world cup that summer. Harry and his parents picked her up from her house. Her parents adored James and Lily, as they had met a few times at the platform while dropping off Harry and Hermione and waiting to pick them up. 

Hermione spent the night at Harry’s house in Godric’s Hollow, a cute little town inhabited by wizards and muggles alike. She and Harry were awoken early the next morning to take something called a “portkey” to where the match would be held. 

The Weasleys were already there when they arrived. Mr. Weasley was having quite the difficult time trying to set up the tents, so Hermione and Lily, who was muggleborn as well and had been on many camping trips herself, quickly stepped in to help. 

Apparently, the Weasleys had to wake up at the crack of dawn to hike to where their portkey was. Hermione felt sorry for them. Since Godric’s Hollow was full of wizards who wished to attend the cup, a portkey was placed right outside the town. She couldn’t help but laugh though at Ginny’s struggle to stay awake. 

Ron’s older brothers, Bill, Charlie, and Percy, joined them a little while later. They were of age and could apparate, so they didn’t need a portkey. Ron grumbled that they got to have more sleep, but no one paid attention to him. Hermione loved getting to meet Bill and Charlie. They were really cool, and Hermione could see why Ron looked up to them. Bill was a curse breaker in Egypt for Gringotts, and Charlie worked with dragons in Romania. Percy’s desk job at the ministry, while rather impressive in its own right as he was the assistant of a very important figure in the wizarding community, Barty Crouch, felt quite boring in comparison. That didn’t stop him from annoying them all with stories about cauldron leaks. 

The match itself was anything but boring. The Potter’s bought them all omnioculars, and Hermione was very thankful. The players were moving so fast, that she wouldn’t have been able to see them otherwise. Ginny tried to tell her who was who, but Hermione couldn’t keep the tiny figures straight. She could tell which team was which, as they wore different colored robes, but that pretty much was it. 

Finally, Viktor Krum caught the snitch in a spectacular dive, and the match was over. Cheers erupted throughout the stadium. Hermione was shocked. Even though Krum caught the snitch for Bulgaria, Ireland still won the game. She had never heard of such a thing happening. Harry said that while it wasn’t common, it did tend to happen. 

When they got back to their tents, parties were going on all around them. Someone had brought Irish colored fireworks and was setting them off. She saw Seamus running around little ways away with his face painted green. He was being followed by Dean, who looked a little embarrassed by his best friend’s antics, but just as joyful. 

The Weasley’s, Potter’s, Hermione, and the Potter’s friends, Professor Lupin, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew, had a party of their own in their biggest tent. The Potter’s had brought their wireless, and an Irish jig was playing. The twins were dancing along to it, pulling anyone they could to join them. Lily was surprisingly good at Irish dancing. Ginny was telling anyone who would listen a play-by-play of the game they had just watched. Harry was trying to convince his dad to buy him a firebolt, which was the broom that all of the players used. James was shaking his head, saying it was too expensive, but Hermione could tell by the look on Harry’s godfather’s face, Sirius Black, that he would be getting his wish. 

The tent, while magically enlarged, was still getting a bit too crowded for Hermione’s liking. She opened the flap and stepped outside for a bit of fresh air. Their tents were on the very edge of the campsite, next to the woods, so they were pretty far away from everyone else. It was the perfect spot for some peace away from everyone else. 

She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, enjoying the smell of the forest. It reminded her of when she would go camping with her parents. She missed doing stuff like that with them. She was at school for most of the year, and they were always super busy when she got home. They were dentists, and dentists didn’t take off of work for the summer. She wished they could go camping again, or at least do something together. 

She was brought sharply out of her reverie when a hand slapped itself over her mouth and she was dragged deep into the forest by a strong arm. She gasped and tried to scream, but the hand over her mouth prevented her from doing so. She kicked punched at the person holding her, but the arm holding her around her waist didn’t loosen one bit. 

The person finally let her go when they were deep into the forest, and she turned to face her attacker. The trees created a canopy that was so thick, it made it almost impossible for Hermione to see. She could make out the tall figure of the person in front of her, but couldn’t for the life of her tell who it was. 

The figure wrapped their arm around the small of her back and pulled her to them. She felt herself being pressed up against a person much taller than she was. They raised their other hand to her face and stroked her cheek. 

“Sorry, my love”, a male voice whispered in the darkness. “I just couldn’t help myself”. 

Before she knew what was happening, she was being harshly kissed by the stranger who had accosted her. His lips were rough against hers, and he was kissing her with such ferocity and hunger that she knew her lips would be bruised. 

After what felt like forever and, at the same time, no time at all, he finally pulled away from her. She gasped for air, her chest heaving, frozen in shock at what had just happened. 

He bent down so his lips were barely grazing her ear. “You are mine”, he rumbled in her ear. She shivered. The warmth of his body was suddenly not there anymore, and she found herself alone in the forest. She was at a complete loss for what just happened. She had no idea of who this person could be. 

She reached up and touched her swollen lips. There was something about that kiss that felt familiar. But that was impossible. She had never been kissed before. She still couldn’t shake that feeling though. Even as she walked back through the forest and found the campsite again, the only thing on her mind was the mysterious man who stole her first kiss from her. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------

September 1994

With Oliver Wood graduating the previous year, Gryffindor was in need of a new keeper. Hermione could tell that Ron wanted to try out. Whenever anyone would mention the tryouts, he would get very quiet and his ears would turn red. She knew he was embarrassed about his poor tryout for the seeker position in his second year, but even he had said that he was a better keeper than a seeker. 

“It doesn’t matter anyway”, Ron said when she tried to talk to him about trying out at dinner one day. “I haven’t got a broom, and the school ones are rubbish”. 

“You could have my Nimbus 2000”, Harry offered, "Sirius will be getting me a Firebolt for Christmas, so I won’t need it anymore”. 

Ron just shook his head. “I can’t do that, Harry. Please don’t give me your charity”. 

Harry clenched his jaw and looked to at his meatloaf. Hermione could practically see the gears in his head turning. 

“I’ll be right back”, he suddenly said, getting up from the table and sprinting up the hall. 

Hermione turned to Ron, who was still looking quite glum. 

“Ginny said she’s seen you play”, Hermione told him gently. “She says you're very good”. 

Ron didn’t say anything. 

“And she knows what she’s talking about”, Hermione added, trying to get him to crack a smile. “She’s a self-proclaimed Quidditch expert”. 

The corner of Ron’s mouth twitched. He looked up at Hermione, his gaze much softer. 

“Thanks ‘Mione”, he said. “But no matter how good I am, I’m just gonna make a fool out of myself on those school brooms”. 

Hermione sighed, not ready to give up. She just hoped that Harry had a plan. 

\----------------------------------------------------

“Whoa! Look at that!” someone in the great hall shouted. 

Everyone turned to watch the owl holding the long, thin, package fly through and drop in front of a very confused Ron. 

“Er”, he said. “I think you’ve made a mistake”. The owl didn’t respond, not that anyone was expecting it to, and flew away. 

“No it didn’t, Ron”, said Dean, leaning across the table to get a better look at the package. “It’s got your name on it”. 

That was true. Ron’s name was scrawled on the paper covering the item it was hiding. Hermione looked over at Harry to see what he thought of this and noticed that Harry was the only one who didn’t seem interested in the package that Ron had just received. He was looking at his steak, a small grin on his face. 

Gasps ran throughout the Gryffindor table as Ron opened the package. It was a Firebolt. Murmurs ran up and down the table and over to the next and soon, pretty much everyone in the hall knew that the most expensive and prestigious broom in the entire world was sitting in front of Ron Weasley. 

Ron was speechless. His eyes were wide and he reached out a trembling hand to gently stroke the broom. Even though she knew next to nothing about brooms, Hermione had to say that it was a beauty. Who on earth had sent that to Ron? His parents definitely couldn’t afford it. 

“Now you’ve got no excuse to not try out for the team, Ron!” squealed Ginny, who was positively jumping with joy. “You’re the owner of the best broom in the world!” 

Hermione turned to face Harry so fast that she might have gotten whiplash. His eyes were shining with happiness as he looked at the look of wonder and amazement on Ron’s face. That look quickly changed to one of mischief when he saw that Hermione was staring at him. 

“What?” he asked not-so-innocently. 

Harry had been talking about wanting a Firebolt ever since the broom had been announced. She couldn’t believe that he had asked Sirius to give one to Ron instead of him. Actually, she could. Harry was the most giving person that she had ever met. 

She laughed and shook her head, amazed by Harry’s generosity. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------

Not as many people showed up for Keeper tryouts as they did for seeker ones a few years ago, but there was still a fair number of people for Ron to go up against. 

“Good luck”, Hermione told him, kissing him on the cheek. Ron’s ears turned pink and before he could say anything in reply, someone rammed into Hermione’s side. 

“Ouch!” Hermione yelped, falling into Harry, who was next to her. 

“Sorry ‘bout that”, said the offender, a tall burly boy with blonde hair and a rather pretentious look on his face. 

Harry helped Hermione right herself and she said “it’s no problem, er”

“Cormac”, the boy said, haughtily pushing out his chest. “Cormac Mclaggen. And I know you’re the spectacular Hermione Granger. We used to hang out you know, at least when you went to Professor Slughorn’s dinners. You always sat across and a little to the right from me”. 

“Oh yes”, Hermione said, not really remembering him at all. “Are you trying out to be Keeper?” 

The boy straightened himself up even further. “Why of course I am. It would have been a shame if I wasn’t. I’m a much better keeper than that Oliver Wood was, you know”. 

“Really?” Harry asked, looking doubtful. 

Mclaggen nodded, still as pompous as ever. He turned to Ron, a look of fake sympathy that wasn’t fooling anyone on his face. 

“I’m sorry you’ll be having to try out against me”, he said. “If your brothers are anything to go by, I bet you’re quite good”. 

Ron’s ears turned even redder, but before he could say anything back to Mclaggen, Angelina Johnson, the new Gryffindor team captain, called over all of the students that were hoping to make the team. 

“Well, I best be going. It was lovely seeing you again, Hermione. You should come to one of Professor Slughorn’s dinners again sometime”. He held out his hand as if to take hers to kiss. She didn’t give it to him, and he ended up standing there awkwardly for a couple of seconds, before marching confidently to Angelina.

Ron took a deep breath, clutching his broom so hard that his knuckles turned white. Harry patted him on the back, and the two boys walked across the field to join the team and the other hoping-to-be-keepers. 

Hermione went and joined Ginny and Neville up in the stands. Ginny was devastated that she couldn’t try out, as she loved Quidditch so much. She didn’t have a broom though, and that was a bit of a deal-breaker. 

Hermione was happy to note that even though he was nervous, Ron was definitely one of the better keepers of the people trying out. Only he and a few others, including Cormac Mclaggen, had managed not to let a single quaffle through the goalposts. 

Eventually, it was only down to him and Mclaggen. Hermione prayed that Ron would win. Not only because he was her best friend, but because she didn’t think having such a cocky keeper would be good for the team. Angelina seemed to think so as well. Hermione could plainly see her nose wrinkle in disgust whenever it was Cormac’s turn to defend the goalposts. 

As if knowing she was thinking about him, Mclaggen looked up to Hermione and winked at her. That did it. She could not stand having that smarmy git beat sweet Ron. 

As Katie was rearing back her arm to throw the Quaffle at Mclaggen, Hermione slyly took out her wand and quietly whispered, “confundus”. Mclaggen flew in the complete opposite direction from where he was meant to, and the Quaffle soared easily through the middle post.

Everyone stared in shock at Mclaggen. He looked pretty shocked himself. Hermione could see Harry snickering with Fred and George. She could tell that the twins didn’t like Mclaggen much either. 

A few minutes later, Angelina announced that Ron would be the Gryffindor Keeper. Mclaggen stomped his foot to the ground and stormed off the pitch, declaring that it was unfair and he deserved to try again. 

Angelina looked quite relieved that she wouldn’t be having to deal with Mclaggen, and started telling the rest of the team when the first practice would be. 

“Congratulations, Ron”, Hermione cheered, throwing her arms around him. 

He blushed and returned the hug, shyly. 

“Thanks ‘Mione”, he said. 

“That was so weird how Mclaggen acted on that last round”, remarked Neville with a puzzled look on his face. “What do you think happened?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care”, Harry replied. “I’m just thankful that I’m not stuck on a team with him”. 

“There was no way he would beat you when you had a Firebolt, Ron”, Ginny announced. “I bet you he finally got too intimidated by it”. 

Even if she hadn’t known the reason for Mclaggen's mysterious behavior, Hermione would have known that this wasn’t the case. Mclaggen was too proud to let something like a better broom shake his confidence. She didn’t say anything though. She just walked back to the castle to celebrate Ron’s victory with her best friends.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am really sad to say that I will not be including the Triwizard Tournament in my story. I really wanted to, but I got stuck writing it and I just felt like I couldn’t do the story justice. I’m sorry if you were hoping to see Tom get jealous of Hermione with Viktor, but I can assure you that there will be some insane amounts of jealousy coming up. 
> 
> Thank you, everyone, for being so supportive!
> 
> All rights of Harry Potter belong to J. K. Rowling

November 1994

 

Time at Hogwarts seemed to fly by over the past couple of months. Classes were getting increasingly difficult, Ron helped Gryffindor win the first Quidditch match of the year, and Hermione met the Hogwarts house elves. 

Fred and George had snuck food up from the kitchens again to celebrate Gryffindor’s win, and Hermione was curious enough to finally ask how they did it. She was absolutely shocked and horrified to learn that there were hundreds of unpaid servants living in Hogwarts that did all of the cooking and cleaning around the castle. The twins insisted that it wasn’t as bad as it sounded. That the house elves liked their situation and didn’t want to be paid or freed. Hermione did not like that one bit. 

She convinced the twins to tell her where the kitchens where, and the next day, went down there herself with Harry, Ron, and Neville. Ron was absolutely thrilled to learn where all the food was being made, and he spent the entire visit eating as much as he could. Hermione was devastated to learn that the twins were right. The elves liked being enslaved. After talking with the elves for a while, the four of them walked back up to the Gryffindor common room, the boys carrying as much food as they could carry, and Hermione thinking of what she could do to help the poor creatures. 

The boys were so caught up in their realization that they could get as much food as they wanted, whenever they wanted, that it took them until they were standing in front of the fat lady’s portrait to realize that Hermione was no longer with them. Indeed, Hermione had left their group quite a bit ago to head off to the library. She decided that before she could do anything to help the house elves, she must first gather as much information on them as she could. 

As it was a Sunday, the library was practically empty when she entered. The only inhabitants there were a few Ravenclaw 2nd years, a Hufflepuff 7th year, and the vulture-like Madam Pince. Thankful for the peace and quiet, Hermione started on her quest. She searched the aisles for any information that could be potentially helpful and found quite a few books that held some promise. She brought her large stack of books to an empty table and began to read. 

She had been there for some time when she realized that there was another person sitting at her table. She looked up to see the exceptionally handsome face of Tom Riddle. 

“Oh Tom”, she gasped, surprised. “I didn’t see you there. You scared me”. 

The older boy chuckled. “I’m sorry, Hermione. I didn’t mean to cause you such a fright”.

She waved her hand. “It’s no problem. What are you doing here?”

“Just looking for a quiet place to do some light reading”, he shrugged, gesturing to the open book in front of him.

Hermione smiled. “It’s so difficult to find peace around here, isn’t it?” she said. 

Tom nodded in agreement. “What are you working on, Hermione? You seemed very absorbed in what you were reading when I sat down”.

This brought up the fire that had been previously quieted down in Hermione once again. “Were you aware that Hogwarts practices slave labor?” she asked. Tom shook his head, looking interested. “Well, it does. There are hundreds of house elves here that cook, clean, and do everything for us and we don’t even see them. Apparently”, she added. “It’s not just in Hogwarts either, there are wizarding families all across Britain that have house elves in their very homes. And that’s not even the worst part”, her voice started to rise as she got more emotional about the topic. “These poor creatures are being brainwashed to believe that it is their rightful place to serve wizards. They are happy about their situation. They….”

“Shhh!” snapped Madam Pince, giving Hermione a reproachful glare. 

“Sorry Madam Pince”, Hermione apologized, ashamed. She looked up at Tom, very red in the face. “I’m very sorry about my outburst, Tom”, she said, embarrassed. 

“Don’t be embarrassed, Hermione”, he said. “It is natural to get worked up about things we are passionate about. I, for one, am quite fond of your passion”.

Hermione didn’t know what to say to that. She just bit her lip and returned to her reading. She could feel Tom’s gaze fixated on her. She shivered and tried to keep concentrating on her book, yet found it increasingly hard to do so. The words on the page in front of her became a blur, and she found herself becoming very warm. Not being able to stand it any longer, she quickly excused herself and rushed out of the library. 

Once she was in the safety of the hall, she leaned up against the wall. Her chest was heaving. It felt like she had been running a marathon. She did not know what was getting into her. She had never had this reaction around Tom before. She couldn’t explain it, but there was something different about Tom that day. She found that she did not like it one bit. 

As she headed up to the Gryffindor common room, she decided that she would not tell Harry or Ron about how uncomfortable being around Tom made her feel. They didn’t seem to like the boy to begin with, and she didn’t want to worry them. She didn’t want to go to the library alone anymore, however, and started dragging Ginny with her whenever the boys didn’t want to go with her. 

\-------------------------------------

The head girl had recently announced that Hogwarts would be having its first Christmas Ball for all 4th through 7th years, and every single girl in Hogwarts seemed to be obsessed with it. Everywhere Hermione turned, there was someone talking about some aspect of the upcoming event. She was starting to get really tired of it. There were plenty of more important things that they could be doing. It was getting closer and closer to Christmas break, so they had a lot of school work to get done before the holidays. 

There also seemed to be a lot more snogging than usual as well. Hermione was constantly catching people in corridors seemingly trying to eat their partners face off. It was disgusting. 

It also made her uncomfortable, as it reminded her of her first kiss from her mysterious abductor. She found herself touching her own lips, which would tingle almost as much as they did that night. She also found, to her embarrassment, that it reminded her of Tom. 

Hermione was walking back to the common room after a visit to the owlery to deliver a letter to her parents when she caught one of these couples snogging with no shame right in the middle of the hallway. She squeaked in embarrassment and they pulled apart to stare at her with a loud squelching noise. Blushing furiously, she quickly ran into the safety of the common room, the portrait of the fat lady closing behind her. 

While there was no one snogging in there, the common room was still filled with many annoying people who were excited about the ball. Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, and Katie Bell were in a corner, talking about different colored dresses they would like to wear. Colin was snapping pictures of the posters Dean had drawn for the event. Lavender and Parvati had spread out all of their makeup, which was a lot, on one of the tables in the middle of the common room, and were having a very serious discussion about what would be the best color lipstick to use when going to the ball. 

There was one person who didn’t seem to be interested in anything to do with the Christmas Ball. Ginny sat in one of the armchairs by the fireplace, staring sadly into the glowing embers. 

Of course. Ginny’s only a third year and therefore too young to attend the ball, Hermione realized. 

She walked over to the younger girl who greeted her glumly. 

“There’s no need to be disappointed, Ginny. If you’re asked to go to the ball by someone older, then you’ll be able to attend”, she said, trying to cheer her up. 

“Who would I go with?” Ginny asked. Neville’s going with Hannah Abbott, Seamus is going with Lavender, Dean is going with Parvati, and I don’t know any older students from the other houses”. 

“There’s always Harry”, Hermione nudged her friend. “I know for sure that he hasn’t asked anybody”. 

Ginny just shook her head. “He wouldn’t ask me. He’s obsessed with Cho Chang”. She spat out the other girl’s name with more malice than Hermione had ever heard in Ginny’s voice before. 

Hermione realized that Ginny wasn’t just upset about not being able to go to the ball, she was upset that Harry had a crush on another girl. Hermione didn’t know how she couldn’t have noticed Harry’s infatuation with Cho. To be fair, Harry knew of her from Quidditch, she was the seeker for the Ravenclaw team, and Hermione didn’t really pay much attention to anything having to do with Quidditch. 

Before she could say anything more to try and help her friend, Ginny’s expression suddenly changed to one of mischief. 

“Enough about me”, she said, her tone considerably brighter than before. “Let’s talk about when my brother’s finally going to pluck up the courage to ask you”. 

“What?” Hermione exclaimed, completely caught off guard. 

Ginny rolled her eyes at Hermione’s obliviousness. “It’s quite obvious isn’t it? Ron’s been pining for you for forever. I can’t believe you haven’t noticed”. 

Hermione turned to stare into the crackling flames in the fireplace, thinking back to every single interaction she had ever had with Ron Weasley. He was one of her best friends. He was also sweet, and funny, and loyal, and she loved being around him. She felt herself start to blush. No no no. She could not start getting silly over Ron. Harry and Neville were also her dear friends, and she wasn’t becoming weak-kneed over them. 

There was something different about Ron, though. Something that she couldn’t put her finger on. Something special. Ever since she danced with him at the Quidditch celebration in her 2nd year, she found herself wanting to be around him more. Wanting to listen more to what he had to say, even though he could say some seriously ridiculous things sometimes. She had never really paid much attention to these feelings though, always pushing them to the very back of her subconscious. Ginny was bringing up feelings and emotions that she had been fruitlessly blocking for some time now, and she was getting quite worked up over it. 

Oh my god. She liked her best friend. She squeaked and placed her hands over her mouth, looking over at a wickedly grinning Ginny with wide eyes. 

“Ginny!” she hissed, ignoring the girls’ giggles. “What do I do?” 

Ginny shrugged. “He’s going to ask you eventually. Just say yes when he does”. 

Ron did not ask her to go the ball that week, however, or the week after that or the week after that. Now that Hermione was more aware of her emotions, she could tell that he wanted to. He was getting constantly flushed around her and their interactions were more awkward than they ever had been. Hermione was starting to get quite annoyed with him. What was holding him back? 

It was a week before the ball when she had finally had enough. Hermione stalked up to Ron in the common room, who was playing exploding snap with Harry and Neville. 

“Ronald”, she said with her arms crossed and her foot tapping, making her look like quite an intimidating figure. “Come with me. I need to speak with you”. Ron looked up at her and gulped. He looked frantically at Harry and Neville, who both seemed at a loss for words as well. Gathering up some of his Gryffindor courage, he stood up and followed Hermione out the portrait hole and into the corridor. 

Hermione took a deep breath and turned to face her red-eared friend. “When were you finally going to get up off your bum and ask me to the ball?” she asked, getting straight to the point. 

Ron’s eyes grew wide, and his ears grew even redder. “I...er...um”, he stammered. 

“Because it’s getting quite ridiculous”, Hermione continued. 

Ron stared at her, unable to form a coherent sentence. Hermione rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Fine. I guess I’ll have to do it myself. Would you like to go to the ball with me, Ron?”

The two stared at each other in silence until a huge grin formed on Ron’s face. 

“Sure! I mean, that’d be nice. Yeah”. He stammered, the glee apparent on his face. 

Hermione beamed, a huge weight seemingly lifted off her shoulders. “Good. Now that that’s over with, we’d best be heading back into the common room, hadn’t we? I know for a fact that Harry’s choice for the ball is going with someone else, and we wouldn’t want him to be going alone, now wouldn’t we?”

And with that, she offered her arm to Ron, and they happily headed back into the common room.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, everyone, for reading my story!
> 
> Harry Potter is owned by J. K. Rowling

December 25, 1994

 

The day of the Christmas Ball was finally at hand. More students than ever before had stayed at Hogwarts over Christmas break in order to attend the event. There were rumors going around that the Weird Sisters, an extremely popular wizard band, had been booked for the evening. 

Harry and Ron waited in the common room for their dates, having gotten ready quite quickly. Harry wore dress robes of a deep emerald green, to match his eyes. He was a bit put off at first when his mum sent them to him, but she insisted that all the boys would be wearing robes like his. 

That seemed to be the case for all the boys except for poor Ron. As his family was very poor they only had enough money to afford to buy him second-hand dress robes. The robes they had bought for him were lacy and looked like they belonged in the 19th century. Ron spent quite a bit of time taking the lace off with his wand to make the dress robes seem more “manly”, but it only did so much. 

Ron was pacing around and around the common, getting more anxious as more time passed. 

“How long does it take for someone to get ready?” he asked. “She’s been in there since early afternoon”.

“Beats me”, Harry shrugged. He felt bad for his friend. He knew how much Ron and Hermione liked each other and was glad that they were going to the ball together. He hoped that, for their sake, the evening went well. He suddenly looked past Ron and froze, his eyes wide and his mouth open in surprise. Ron whipped his head around to get a look at what Harry just saw and reacted quite similarly to his friend. 

Hermione was standing at the top of the stairs to the girls’ dormitories, and all of Ron’s nerves faded away. Ron thought Hermione was very pretty when she was dressed normally, even if her hair was very bushy and her teeth were a little big, but she looked better than he ever could have imagined when she was all dressed up. 

She wore periwinkle-blue dress robes that floated around her, and her hair was sleek, shiny, and tied up in and knot on top of her head. Ron stared at her as she came down the stairs, utterly speechless. He couldn’t believe that that was his best friend right there. With his dress robes as dreadful as they were, he was almost hoping that she wouldn’t look as nice as she ended up being. 

She stopped right in front of the two boys and smiled a big toothy smile at them. Ron was relieved to see her still too big front teeth and that some of her frizzy curls had escaped their confinement to fall down and frame her face. These imperfections were more like the Hermione he knew and made him breathe a little easier. 

“Blimey”, he breathed. Hermione blushed pink, and Ron ducked his head sheepishly. “You look nice”, he said awkwardly, absentmindedly scratching the back of his neck. 

Hermione giggled a very un-Hermione-ish giggle. “You look very nice yourself, Ron”. Even though he might have believed differently, she honestly thought he did. She was surprised to see that Ron looked quite handsome when he cleaned up a bit and wasn’t stuffing food in his face, even if the dress robes were a little old fashioned. 

Harry and Ron were so focused on Hermione that it took them a minute to see Ginny, who was right behind her. Her dress robes were not nearly as fancy as Hermione’s, but she looked just as nice. She kept her hair down, letting it flow to her waist, and she wore the biggest smile as she looked at Harry. 

Harry blinked and had to do a double-take looking at Ginny. He had known the girl almost his entire life, as she was the little sister of his best friend, but he had never noticed how pretty she was before. He didn’t know how to feel about that. 

“You both look lovely”, he told the girls with an affectionate smile. “Shall we?” he asked, offering his arm politely to Ginny. She beamed and took it with a little giggle that only Hermione noticed. Hermione smiled at her younger friend. She was thrilled that she was able to convince Harry to ask Ginny to the ball. It didn’t take that long once he had learned that Cho Chang would be going with Cedric Diggory, a 6th year Hufflepuff boy. He had been disappointed at first but brightened once Ginny squealed with delight when he asked her to go with him. 

Ron copied Harry and offered his arm to Hermione, who gladly took it. She looked up at her tall friend with a smile, and he returned it warmly. The four Gryffindors headed out of the common room together to journey to the great hall. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------

Tom and the rest of the Slytherins were among the first to arrive at the great hall that evening, as punctuality was a very Slytherin trait. The enormous room was turned into a winter wonderland. Icicles and snowflakes decorated the entire hall and ice sculptures adorned all of the tables. The Weird Sisters were playing at the head of the room, and people started gathering in front of them to dance. 

Tom’s eyes searched the students around him, yet he was unable to find the girl he sought. His date, Bellatrix Black, who just so happened to be the youngest sister of Draco Malfoy’s mother, tugged at his arm to get his attention. He rolled his eyes, already annoyed with her. He didn’t want to take Bellatrix, but he couldn’t have taken Hermione, as she was muggleborn and would not have seemingly been an impressive sight. With her long, curly dark hair and dark eyes, Bellatrix was one of the most beautiful girls in the entire school. So, seeing as he deserved the best, Tom asked her to be his date. 

Unfortunately, Bellatrix seemed under the impression that she and Tom were betrothed to one another, as she gave scorching looks to any girl who even glanced in Tom’s direction ever since he asked her to the dance a few weeks back. Tom wanted to very much put her in her place by telling her that she was nothing more than a pretty sight to have on his arm. He wanted to have a good time that night though, so he didn’t, and patiently listened to her go on and on about whatever unimportant thing she had to say. 

He wished that he was with Hermione right then. Even the most boring thing she could ever say would be a thousand times more interesting than the brightest thing Bellatrix could ever come up with. He finally offered to dance with Bellatrix in order to shut her up. 

He had been dancing with her for a while when a loud gasp from Pansy Parkinson, who was dancing with Draco right next to them, snapped his attention to the front of the room. Hermione Granger stood in the doorway, looking more lovely than he had ever seen her. Her blue dress robes made her pale skin look flawless, and he could just make out the beginnings of curves from underneath them. He could see her pink lips from all the way across the room and he wanted more than anything to run to her and ravish her with his own, claiming her as his in front of everybody. 

It was then that he noticed her date. Ron Weasley. His lips curled into a snarl. 

That should be his arm that she was holding onto. That should be his joke she was laughing at. That should be him she was looking at with adoration. That should be him. 

He took a deep breath to calm himself. He had an appearance to uphold, and attacking Ronald Weasley in front of hundreds of people would be far from helpful to him. At least she wasn’t with Potter. He didn’t know if he could have stopped himself if her date was the green-eyed boy. 

He couldn’t help but stare at her though, as people crowded around her to shower her with compliments. She looked so much like the perfect vision of a pure-blooded woman. He could imagine her looking like that at his side as he conquered the wizarding world. 

Tom was not the only Slytherin boy to have their world rocked by Hermione Granger. Draco Malfoy stood completely in awe of her, not willing to believe that that was the same girl he had called a mudblood just two years previously. She looked like a princess. 

He shook his head to try and clear it. He did not just compare Hermione Granger to a princess. But he had. He had and he could not get the image of her out of his head. He faintly heard Pansy say his name, but all of his attention was focused on the vision of beauty that had just walked into the hall. 

Oh boy. He was in trouble. 

\----------------------------------------------

Hermione could not believe the difference a pretty dress, a little makeup, and some Sleekeazy’s Hair Potion could make. She felt like a completely different person. Everyone else seemed to think that too, which was honestly unsettling. She was being complemented by people that had never spoken to her before, and she wished they would treat her that way when she looked like her normal self. 

Ron seemed to sense that she was getting uncomfortable with all of the attention, so he quickly pulled her onto the dance floor. In the two years since they had last danced together, neither of them had gotten any better. Hermione still had just as much fun though, laughing as Ron whispered jokes in her ear and pretended that he had just been brutally stabbed in the foot whenever she accidentally stepped on it. 

She found herself crying with laughter and had to sit down. Ron excused himself to go get them some punch. Hermione just nodded, still wiping tears from her eyes. She leaned her head back and relaxed, watching everyone else dance to a particularly upbeat song. Fred and Angelina were carving a path through the dance floor, everyone leaping to get out of the way of their quick feet. Neville was sweetly twirling Hannah Abbott around and around. Ginny was all smiles as she jumped around to the beat with Harry. 

The Weird Sisters suddenly started playing a much slower song, and a tall figure stopped to stand directly in front of Hermione. She looked up with a smile, expecting to see Ron back with the punch. It wasn’t Ron. The person standing in front of her was Tom Riddle. 

She gulped, her heart pounding. He bowed to her like a gentleman and reached out his hand. 

“May I have this dance, my lady?” he asked. His voice was low and he was looking at her in a way that made her feel very uncomfortable. It was like he wanted to eat her or something. 

She didn’t want to say yes, but she found herself taking his hand anyway. She chastised herself for it, but she didn’t want to be rude. He brought her onto the middle of the dance floor and turned her so that they were facing each other. He suddenly pulled her into him so they were pressed up against each other. Hermione squeaked but didn’t say anything. 

They danced for a bit in complete silence. Hermione’s face was red. She felt herself shaking. She wanted to get as far away from him as she could, but he was holding her in a vice-like grip. 

“You look ravishing”, he purred into her ear. She shivered. There he goes with wanting to eat her again. 

She looked around, desperate to find Ron to save her, but he was nowhere in sight. She turned to face Tom’s smoldering gaze. She watched in horror as his face neared hers, becoming close enough to kiss. 

“May I cut in?” 

The two of them turned their heads to see Harry standing there. His voice sounded polite, but his eyes bore angrily into Tom’s. Hermione could feel Tom clench her closer to him and was afraid he wouldn’t let her go. 

Suddenly, she was free from the confinement of his arms. Still holding her hand, he raised it to his lips to press a soft kiss to her knuckles. Hermione felt tingles run up and down her spine. He let go of her hand and she quickly gave it to Harry. 

Her friend pulled her away from Tom and they started to head off of the dance floor. She could see Ron and Ginny at a table with snacks and punch. She sighed in relief. Not being able to help herself, she turned back to where Tom stood, now alone, on the dance floor, glaring daggers into the back of Harry’s head. 

\---------------------------------------------------

Tom was boiling with rage. He had her. He had her in his arms. He was about to claim her as his, and Potter came in and ruined it. 

Potter

He wanted more than anything to take out his wand and kill the boy where he stood. He reached into his pocket and gripped his wand so tightly he thought it would break. He imagined Potter’s skull being crushed under his hand. He imagined the light leaving his eyes. He imagined the feeling of relief at the thought of finally being free of the boy he so hated. 

Suddenly a boy, he believed Finnigan was his name, bumped into him, and he was brought out of his reverie. He shook his head and stalked back to a table where Bellatrix was moping. He could clearly see Hermione chatting animatedly with her friends as if the moment they just had together never happened. 

Oh, how he loved the way her small body felt pressed up against his larger one. How he loved the softness of her skin. How he loved the smell of her hair. How he loved the feeling of her. 

Bellatrix was quite peeved when he reached her. He didn’t pay any mind to her, choosing to watch Hermione for the rest of the night. Bellatrix minded very much, though, and if he had paid any attention to her, he would have noticed the way she glared at Hermione with as much hatred as he just had at Harry Potter.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading my story, everybody!
> 
> Harry Potter is owned by J. K. Rowling

December 26, 1994

 

The Christmas Ball finally ended at midnight, leaving all of the students to shuffle tiredly to their dormitories. Hermione’s feet ached, but she couldn’t help but smile. She had had a wonderful time overall at the ball and was still on a high from the excitement. 

Neville excused himself to take Hannah back to the Hufflepuff dorms, and the rest of the Gryffindors continued their trek to Gryffindor tower. Once inside, Hermione wrapped her arms around Ron and Harry and squeezed them in a big hug. While Harry was bidding Ginny goodnight, a very red-in-the-face Ron bent down and gave Hermione a kiss on the cheek. Butterflies appeared in her stomach and she beamed at her freckled friend before grabbing Ginny’s hand and disappearing into the girls’ dormitories with her. 

Hermione collapsed on her bed, her mind still reeling from the nights' events. She tried to focus on the time she had spent with Ron and with Harry and Ginny, but she couldn’t stop thinking about the dance she had shared with Tom. She remembered how possessively he had held her. She remembered how he had stared into her eyes. She shivered, kicked off her shoes, and rubbed her aching feet. 

Lavender and Parvati then burst into their room, giggling. Hermione smiled at the pair of them, glad that they had had a good time. The three girls changed out of their dress robes and took off their makeup. Hermione spent a good 10 minutes getting all of the pins out of her hair that had started to curl again. She shook her head hard to get the bounciness back into her curls and looked in the mirror. While she had enjoyed her Cinderella moment, it felt good to look like herself again. 

Hermione tucked herself into bed and fell asleep to Lavender and Parvati’s whispers about the night they had just had. 

\------------------------------------------------------

It was around 3:00 in the morning when Hermione was shaken violently awake. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes and looked around the dark room for the perpetrator. Lavender and Parvati were fast asleep, Lavender snoring softly. 

A girl appeared suddenly in Hermione’s line of vision, causing her to jump. The girl was a very small first-year and had tears rolling down her face. Before Hermione could ask her what was wrong she said: 

“Please come with me. You’ve got to help me with my cat”. 

The girl’s voice was soft and trembling. She looked absolutely devastated. Hermione quickly put her dressing gown on over her pajamas, slipped her feet into their slippers, and followed the girl out of the dormitory. She looked around the common room for a cat in trouble but found none. The girl was climbing out of the portrait hole, and Hermione headed after her. 

The corridor outside was very dark and gloomy, a big change from the festive appearance the great hall had had earlier that evening. The portrait hole closed, and Hermione turned to find the fat lady no longer in her portrait. 

Guess we’ll be waiting out here a while, she thought. 

Suddenly a voice rang out from the darkness. 

“Petrificus totalus!” 

Hermione was hit by a flash of blue light, her arms snapped to her sides and her legs were forced together. She fell backward until she hit the floor underneath her, frozen, unable to move a muscle. Her eyes darted around wildly. She could hear the sobs of the young girl that had brought her out there and the soft mewings of a cat. 

A face framed by long black hair appeared over Hermione’s face. Bellatrix Black smiled maliciously down at the poor petrified girl. 

“Looks like you’ve gotten yourself in quite the bind there, Granger”, she chuckled. Hermione could hear the cruel laughs of other girls nearby. She glared at Bellatrix with as much rage as she could muster, but her heart was beating wildly in her chest. 

What was Bellatrix going to do to her?

She tried to keep the terror out of her eyes as the older girl her wand to make her float off the ground. Hermione could see the young first-year out of the corner of her eye. The girl was clutching a cat in fright, some of the feline’s fur was missing in chunks. Hermione realized in horror that Bellatrix and her friends must have captured the cat and blackmailed the girl into leading her out, defenseless, into the hallway. 

If her jaws weren’t already jammed together, she would have clenched them in fury. The Slytherin girls led their frozen captive down the corridor to wherever they were taking her. As they were walking along, Hermione wished desperately that Filch or Peeves or somebody would come across them. But no one did. Everyone was most likely asleep, all tired out from the night of dancing and excitement. 

Before she knew it, Hermione was outside in the frigid cold. She couldn’t even shiver because of the curse she was under, and could only wonder where she was being taken to. When she saw the canopy of trees above her, she realized that they must have entered the forbidden forest. 

Deeper and deeper the girls trekked, until finally, they reached a small clearing. Hermione felt herself being set down on the cold hard ground and tried desperately to find some movement in her frozen limbs. Bellatrix whispered another spell and black ropes tied themselves tightly around Hermione. Bellatrix positioned her so that she was sitting with her back against a tree and tied a black cloth around her mouth before lifting the Full Body-Bind Curse. 

Hermione immediately wiggled around and tried to speak, her words muffled by the cloth. Bellatrix and her friends just laughed at her as they watched her fruitless attempts to free herself. Then, to Hermione’s horror, they started to walk away. She tried to scream out to them, but only small whimpers escaped the barrier obstructing her mouth. Bellatrix turned to wave her fingers mockingly at Hermione, and then the girls were gone, leaving Hermione alone in the bitterly cold forest. 

\-----------------------------------------------------

When Hermione didn’t appear the following morning, Harry and Ron were quick to worry. The last time she didn’t show herself early in the day was when she had been petrified, and the boys did not want to make the same mistake they did the previous year. They checked the great hall, the library, and the hospital wing, but she wasn’t there. They asked multiple people, but they seemed to know as little information as them. 

As they turned a corridor, Tom Riddle came into their line of sight. Harry froze, his blood starting to boil. 

If Riddle had anything to do with Hermione’s disappearance……

He marched towards Riddle, Ron quick at his heels. The older boy stared down at them when they approached him, a look of open dislike clear on his face. 

“Where’s Hermione?” Harry asked. 

Riddle blinked, looking more surprised than Harry had ever seen. 

“What do you mean, Potter?”

“I mean”, Harry continued, getting more impatient and frustrated. “Where have you taken her?” 

Riddle’s brow furrowed. “I still don’t understand what you are saying, Potter. I haven’t seen Hermione since last night”. 

Harry wanted to shout at Riddle that he was lying, but he could see the sincerity in the boys' dark eyes and knew that he was telling the truth. 

“Then where could she be?” Ron asked desperately. 

Riddle’s eyes were wide with worry, all traces of malice gone from his face. “I don’t know”, he whispered. 

\-----------------------------------------------------

Harry and Ron had gone to Dumbledore after that. Before long, a school-wide search was put in place for Hermione. Everyone from teachers to prefects to ghosts were on the lookout for her. Tom Riddle even sent out all the students in Slytherin to look for the small girl. 

Even after hours of searching, no one had been able to find a trace of her. Harry and Ron were getting desperately worried. They had been so frantic that McGonagall insisted that they stay in the Gryffindor common room until Hermione was safe and sound. 

So there they sat, waiting for any sort of news concerning their best friend. Ron was pacing around and around the room. Harry was staring into the fireplace, biting his nails down to the quick. 

“Will you stop that?” Ginny finally snapped at her brother. 

Ron stopped his pacing and opened his mouth to yell at her. 

“I’m just as worried about Hermione as you are”, Ginny said, calmly. “But pacing around is not going to do anything to help her. It’s just going to make me annoyed”. 

Before Ron could say anything to that, a small snuffling noise was made in the corner of the common room. The three Gryffindors turned their heads to see a small 1st-year girl crying softly into a pillow. 

“What’s wrong, sweetie?” Ginny asked kindly, going over to wrap her arm around the distraught girl. 

“It’s all my fault”, the girl whimpered. 

“What are you talking about?” Ginny asked, confused. 

“Your friend, Hermione Granger, I’m the reason she was taken”.

Harry’s blood ran cold. “Taken?” he asked, running over to the two girls. “What do you mean taken?” 

Ron shot up from his seat and stood with Harry, looking as equally shocked and horrified. 

“Bellatrix Black took my cat and said she would kill him unless I got Hermione Granger to come to her last night”, the girl sobbed, putting her face into her hands. 

“Where did Bellatrix take her?” Harry asked, his voice shaking. 

“The forbidden forest, I think”, the girl replied. 

Harry and Ron took off, shooting out of the common room like rockets. They ran down staircase after staircase, corridor after corridor until finally they were exiting the main doors to the castle and sprinting across the snow-covered grounds to the forest. 

Harry ran faster than he ever had in his life. He had no idea how long Hermione had been out in the forest, but it had to have been for at least 12 hours. She was probably frozen. 

The boys finally slowed their pace when they reached the forest. It was huge. They had no idea where to start. She could be anywhere. They could comb the place for hours and still find no trace of her. Ron suddenly ran to the left. Before Harry could ask where he was going, he just said: 

“Hagrid!”

Harry raced after Ron and a few moments later, they were banging their fists as fast and as hard as they possibly could on Hagrid’s door. 

“Woah Woah Woah! Wha’s goin’ on ‘ere?” Hagrid asked when he opened the door to Harry and Ron’s bright red faces. 

“Hermione”, Harry gasped. “She’s in the forest”. 

Hagrid immediately sprang into action. He grabbed his crossbow, barked for Fang to follow him, and marched out of his small wooden hut to the forest. Harry and Ron followed him, but Hagrid held out his arm to keep them from going, nearly taking off their heads in the process. 

“Stay here”, he barked gruffly. 

He left no room for argument in his harsh voice, so Harry and Ron obeyed. The two boys stood, shaking, in the cold as they waited for the huge man to return, preferably with their friend. 

After waiting for what seemed like days, Hagrid came running through the trees back towards them with Fang barking behind him. He was no longer wearing his large coat, and Harry realized that it was wrapped around a small figure bundled in his arms. He took off running at full speed towards the castle. Harry and Ron had no chance of keeping up with him, but they ran as fast as they could anyway. 

When they finally made it back to the castle, Hagrid was nowhere in sight. Not stopping to take a breath, even though their lungs burned, the boys took off to the hospital wing. Once they arrived, McGonagall and Dumbledore were already there, and Madam Pomfrey was hovering over Hermione, who was lying motionlessly on one of the beds. 

McGonagall looked up to see the two horrified boys and headed over to them. She ushered them out of the wing as they bombarded her with questions. 

“Is she going to be alright?” 

“Are her fingers all there?”

“Is she going to die?”

“How cold was she?”

“IS SHE GOING TO BE OKAY?!?”

McGonagall was very angry with what had just become of Hermione, but she looked sympathetically at the worried boys anyway. She could tell how worried they had been and how devastated they were at what happened to their best friend. 

“Miss Granger will make a full recovery”, she said. Harry and Ron sighed with relief. “She was quite cold when Hagrid brought her in, but Madam Pomfrey will take good care of her. Now, it will do her no good to have you two hovering over her, so I am going to have to ask you to leave her be and wait in the common room for her”.

The boys nodded, feeling numb, and headed away to follow McGonagall’s instructions. As they turned the corner, they bumped into a very harried looking Tom Riddle. His eyes were wide and he was shaking a little. 

“I heard Hermione was brought into the hospital wing”, he said, not seeming to care that he was talking to two boys that he so greatly despised. “What happened?” He demanded. 

Harry glared at the taller boy. “Wouldn’t you like to know, Riddle”, he snapped. “It was your girlfriend who did this to her”.

Riddle took a step back, shocked. 

“What….?”

“Bellatrix Black abducted Hermione and left her in the forbidden forest all night!” Ron shouted, outraged, at Riddle. 

Riddle’s eyes narrowed, his face turning into a mask of fury before his expression suddenly became completely blank. 

“Thank you for informing me of this”, he said, softly. “I can assure you that Bellatrix will face severe consequences for her actions”. 

Before Harry and Ron could say another word, Tom turned around and headed towards the dungeons.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your kind words and for reading my story! I'm glad you are liking it!
> 
> All rights of Harry Potter belong to J. K. Rowling

December 26, 1994

 

The entire house of Slytherin was in their common room, watching the scene unfolding in the middle of the circle they created. A couple of first years were shaking with fear, and one small girl was even crying. It was a pretty scary sight. Tom Riddle stood in the center of everyone, Bellatrix kneeling at his feet. The girl was quaking, her eyes full of tears. 

“I’m sorry Tom! I’m sorry!” she cried. “I-”

“Be quiet”, he hissed. His eyes were flashing and he looked angrier than any of them had ever seen him before. He turned away from her and started pacing around the inside of the circle so that everyone could get a clear view of him. 

“As you are all aware, I am the rightful heir of Salazar Slytherin”, he said. No one dared to say anything in response. 

“As his heir, it is my duty to carry out his wish of purifying the wizarding world of mudbloods-”

“That’s what I was doing m-m-my lord”, Bellatrix interrupted, trying to get back into his good graces by calling him the name he had presented them all with the previous year. “I was-”

“No you were not!” he hissed, rounding on her, causing her to cower again in fear. “You were deliberately trying to harm her because of my interest in her. You were not thinking of furthering our cause in any way!”

Tom straightened himself up and continued his circle around the whimpering Bellatrix. 

“I fully intend to rule the wizarding world once I accomplish my task”, he continued as if he was never interrupted. “I have realized that I cannot do this alone, however, and I have already chosen the perfect person to rule by my side. Bellatrix’s eyes widened and she looked up at Tom in horror, realizing the person he had chosen and understanding the magnitude of her mistake. 

“This person is one Hermione Granger”, he said. “She may be a mudblood, but she has a fire in her heart and a magical ability that is the closest I have seen to matching mine. She is the only one worthy of the title of Dark Lady, and will, therefore, be treated with the utmost respect from all of you”. 

He looked each and every member of his house in the eyes as if daring them to argue his choice. Draco looked as though he was about to say something, but Tom was pleased to see that he was wise enough to hold his tongue. 

“Not only will she be treated with respect”, he continued. “I trust that all of you will make sure that no harm befalls her in any way. And this”, he turned his wand on Bellatrix. “Is what will happen if any of you disrespect her or cause her harm of any kind. Crucio!”

Bellatrix screamed in pain and writhed around on the ground. Some of the students gasped in horror, and some looked like they were going to be sick. Tom did not look like either of those things. He was looking at Bellatrix with an expression of maniacal glee as he watched her being tortured. 

Finally, he let up the curse. Bellatrix gasped for breath and curled up in a ball, sobbing. A first-year boy threw up on the ground. Tom paid no attention to either of these occurrences and addressed the rest of his house. 

“I do not want to cause any of you pain”, he said, looking at them sadly. “You are my loyal followers, and I need every one of you in order to achieve the greatness I so desire. I will have to do so if you force my hand again. Understood?” he called out, sharply. 

Draco watched as his housemates pledge their allegiance to their Dark Lord, and swear to follow his every order. It made Draco feel sick to his stomach as he watched his usually formidable young aunt cower on the floor. He had no idea what Tom had in mind to convince Hermione Granger to rule at his side, but he knew that it couldn’t be good. 

Knowing Granger and how righteous she could be, Draco knew that it would be near-impossible to accomplish such a task. He found himself worried for the bushy-haired girl and knew that the safest place for her would be as far away as possible from Tom Riddle. 

\------------------------------------------------------------

Hermione had been in the hospital wing for two days before she was finally allowed to return to Gryffindor tower. She remembered the feeling of helplessness she had in the forest. She remembered how unbearably cold she felt. She honestly felt she was going to die, and had fallen asleep thinking that way. 

When she awoke the next day in a warm bed, she had cried out in fear and alarm. Madame Pomfrey had rushed to her immediately, and it had taken a good few minutes for her to convince Hermione that she was okay. Becoming overwhelmed, Hermione burst into tears. Harry and Ron had to be called in to calm her down. 

They had been so worried about her and told her of how they were so sorry and wished they had found her sooner. Hermione felt so much affection for her boys that her heart hurt, and she assured them that they had nothing to be sorry for. They stayed with her for the entire day and gave her warm hugs whenever she felt even the slightest chill. 

She was happy to be going back to the common room after staying in the lonely hospital wing at first but was soon wishing to be back in isolation when she was immediately bombarded with people upon her entry. Everyone wanted to know what had happened to her, and no one seemed to understand that she was far from being in the mood to answer their questions. Harry and Ron were quick to come to her aid though, telling everyone to give her space and sitting her down in one of the plushy armchairs by the roaring fire. 

While everyone else had the tact to leave Hermione alone, Cormac McLaggen insisted on crowding around her and peppering her with questions. He had been going on and on for quite some time about how Hermione would never have been captured and left out in the forest to die if she had been with him when Fred and George finally pushed him away and yelled at him to “sod off”, which he did rather grumpily. 

She had stayed curled up like a cat in the armchair for a while and finally fell asleep. Everyone else gradually left the common room to go up to bed until it was finally just her and Ron, who was polishing his Firebolt that really didn’t need any polishing. 

Ron looked over at one-half of his two best friends with adoration clearly visible in his eyes. He couldn’t believe how close he was to losing her. He couldn’t believe how cold her skin was when he went to visit her in the hospital wing, even after she had been treated by Madame Pomfrey. He couldn't believe that anyone would have so much hate in their heart that they would attempt to murder her. 

Hermione shifted in her sleep and the blanket that she had been covered with fell off her onto the floor. She whimpered and shivered, but didn’t awaken. Ron quickly stood up and carefully placed the blanket back over her. She sighed once she was back under its warmth, her expression returning to one of content. Ron’s hand hovered over her shoulder as he looked into her face. Her face that looked just as beautiful as it did when she decorated it with makeup for the Christmas Ball. Probably even more so, as without the makeup on, he could see the tiny freckles that dotted her nose. He reached his hand out to brush the hair out of her face that had fallen to cover it when she opened her big brown eyes. 

Ron froze, his hand still outstretched. Hermione looked up at him with a curious expression on her face. 

“Sorry”, he whispered, starting to pull his hand away. “I’ll…..er, just let you-”

“No”, she said suddenly, reaching out her own hand to grab his retreating one. “Please don’t go”. 

Surprised that she wasn’t pushing him away like she had everyone else, Ron knelt down in front of her, their hands still connected. 

He noticed that tears had started to fall from her eyes. 

“You alright?” he asked. 

She shook her head and covered her face with her free hand. Ron paused, unsure of what to do. He wasn’t the best with girls when they weren’t crying, much less when they were. Unable to decide what was the best course of action, he wrapped his arms around her. 

Hermione started to cry harder and she flung her arms around her startled friend. 

“I was so scared, Ron”, she sobbed, shaking against him. “I thought I was going to die. I-I-I..”

“Shhh”, Ron murmured softly in her ear, despite being quite panicked himself. “You’re okay. You’re okay. I’m not gonna let anything happen to you”. 

She pulled away from him, still sniffling, to look him right in the eyes. He blushed and part of him wanted to look away from her searing gaze. The Gryffindor lion in him, however, held her stare. 

Hermione did not know what made her do it, but before she was fully aware of what she was doing, she was closing her eyes and leaning towards the boy in front of her and kissing him right on the mouth. Ron’s eyes flew open in shock and alarm, but they quickly closed. 

Ron’s lips were chapped, but still soft. They felt nice against hers. He wrapped one of his arms around her waist to hold her close and brought the other up to her face to cup her cheek. He was gentle with her and she felt safe in his arms, the complete opposite feeling she had when she was with Tom Riddle or being kissed roughly by the stranger in the dark at the Quidditch World Cup. She found that she preferred being kissed by Ron. 

All of a sudden, they were apart again, Hermione’s face flushed and Ron’s ears a brilliant red. For a moment, Hermione felt alarmed at what she had just done. She had kissed one of her best friends in the entire world. That feeling left her as quickly as it came as she looked into Ron’s beautiful blue eyes. 

This felt right.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, everybody, for all of your kind words! I love reading your comments! 
> 
> Harry Potter is owned by J. K. Rowling

December 29, 1994

 

Hermione was still in shock from what had taken place between Ron and her the previous evening. They had kissed! 

She lay awake in her bed all night long thinking about what this meant for them. Worrying about how this would change their friendship. She liked Ron a lot, she really did, but she valued his friendship more than anything else and didn’t want to do something that would jeopardize that. 

When Ron awoke the next morning, quite exhausted as hadn’t been able to sleep much either, Hermione was waiting for him in the common room. The room was empty save for her, as everyone else had already gone down to breakfast. She heard him approaching and looked up, her face pinking. 

Ron sat down beside her on the sofa she was curled up on and they stayed in silence for a while. He saw her small hands clutch the book she was holding and he wanted so desperately to hold one of them in his own. Not knowing if it would be appropriate though, he refrained. 

“So”, he breathed. “What happens now?”

Hermione looked at her friend’s very anxious face. She could see how scary this was for him. She didn’t want to do anything that would make him feel uncomfortable. 

“We don’t have to be anything official if you don’t want to be”, she said softly. 

“It’s not that I don’t want to be! It’s...it’s…”, he looked at her in a panic. 

“I know”, she interrupted him, laying her hand gently on his arm. “You’re not ready for that. I can wait. I’m willing to wait for whenever you are prepared”.

He looked slightly less scared at this statement, so she went on. 

“I like you a lot, Ron”, she said, keeping his gaze even though she wanted desperately to look away. “And I know you like me”. His ears grew bright red when she said that, but he didn’t contradict her so she continued. “But I am not going to push you to do anything that you are not ready for. I want us…I want this to work between us. And in order for us to work, we both need to be ready to do what it takes to make a relationship successful. I am not going to put our friendship in jeopardy by rushing into things”. 

Ron nodded, slowly. This was an extremely awkward conversation, but at the same time, he felt glad that these things were being said. He adored Hermione and wanted the best for her. This was all just a big step that he wasn’t ready for. 

Hermione opened her arms in a hug, and he accepted, holding her against him. 

“Let’s not tell anyone about this, alright?” she whispered in his ear. 

“I couldn’t agree more”, he laughed softly. 

Ron’s stomach grumbled suddenly, causing them to leap apart in alarm before busting out in laughter. 

“I think we’d better head to breakfast”, Hermione giggled, standing up and offering her hand to him. 

“Yeah”, Ron said, embarrassed but still smiling as he took her hand. 

Their moment together was interrupted when they walked out of the portrait hole and into the corridor. Leaning against the wall opposite them, was Tom Riddle. His eyes flashed when he saw their joined hands, but otherwise, his expression was blank. 

“Hermione”, he said, as he stepped away from the wall and towards the couple. “Are you alright? I was worried about you”.

“She’s fine”, Ron answered for her. “No thanks to you”, he snapped. 

Tom’s eyes narrowed. Hermione glared at Ron. She may not be that comfortable around Tom Riddle anymore, but she sure didn’t appreciate Ron speaking for her. Even if they were kinda maybe sorta dating, he still did not have the right to do that. 

“I’m alright now, Tom”, she said, offering him a small smile as recompense for Ron’s short attitude. 

Tom’s eyes softened once he looked at her. 

“Good”, he said. “I also wanted to let you know, Hermione, that Bellatrix suffered the appropriate consequences for what she did to you”.

“Oh”, Hermione said, not sure what to think of that. She hadn’t thought much about Bellatrix since her attack and wasn’t really interested in the punishment her professors had given the older girl for her actions. “Ok”.

Tom gave her a soft smile, completely ignoring Ron, and left as quickly as he came. 

“I don’t like him”, Ron said, matter of factly. Hermione ignored that comment and yanked her hand from his so she could face him. 

“Don’t speak for me again”, she said coolly. Ron’s eyes grew wide and he quickly nodded his head. 

Hermione took a deep breath and started making her way towards the great hall. Ron fell into step beside her but did not make any attempts to take her hand again. Their attitudes when they entered the hall were significantly less cheerful than they had been when they first exited the portrait hole. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------

Hermione was glad to note that the awkwardness between her and Ron faded over time, albeit rather gradually. He was still hesitant to hold her hand or give her a hug, and they had not kissed again. Hermione was in no mood to rush their relationship though. They had much to prepare for their OWL’s that were coming up next year, and they had all the time in the world after their school years to sort themselves out. 

For the time being, she contented herself to their talks they would have whenever there was time for them to be alone (which wasn’t a lot) and the comforting feeling of being close to him. Other than a few small spats, they were rather happy together, which was a huge relief. She could tell that Ginny, and even the extremely unobservant Harry, had noticed the change in dynamic between the two of them, but they luckily didn’t comment on it. 

What they were quick to comment on, and Ron too for that matter was the increase of Slytherins around them. At first, it wasn’t much, just one or two more Slytherins than there normally were in the library while Hermione was studying. Their numbers significantly greatened, however, as did the places they would be. From the owlery to the bathrooms, to every corridor she walked down. They seemed to be following her. Watching her. 

Hermione did not like it one bit. Harry and Ron offered to confront them, but she insisted that they didn’t. She did not want them to get into trouble on her behalf. Besides, the year was over halfway finished, everything would probably go back to being normal after summer vacation. She and her friends just did their best to avoid the Slytherins whenever possible. 

There was no hope, however, of staying far away from their green and silver clad housemates whenever they had classes together. There was nothing that could be done, so Hermione resigned herself to just ignoring the stares she felt being directed at her. 

Harry and Ron, however, were getting quite annoyed with the behavior of the Slytherins and were quite vocal about making their displeasure known. It was becoming commonplace to see the two boys exchanging jabs with members of the other house. More often than not, Draco Malfoy was involved. 

On one particular day, while they were waiting outside in front of the greenhouses for Herbology, Harry and Draco were getting into a pretty heated debate. If you had asked anyone what it was about, they wouldn’t have been able to answer you. All that was important was that suddenly the two boys wands were out and pointed at each other. 

“Stop you two!” Hermione yelled, coming in between them. “Just stop! You’re going to get yourselves in trouble!” Both boys looked as though they would rather do anything else than follow Hermione’s command as they looked at each other with supreme loathing, but they lowered their wands anyway. 

Hermione took Harry’s arm and started to lead him away from Malfoy. They had not gone that far when Harry muttered something incredibly insensitive about Malfoy under his breath. Normally Harry would never say such a thing, but Malfoy always brought out the worst in him. 

Hermione gasped at the comment, and Malfoy’s friends roared in indignation. One of them, a skinny brown-haired boy with a rather large nose named Theodore Nott, fired a curse at Harry’s retreating back. Harry had felt the curse being thrown at him and was able to whirl around and raise a quick shield charm to block himself from it. Unfortunately, the curse rebounded off of the shield and right into Hermione’s face, pushing her to the ground. 

“Hermione!” Ron yelled, running over to her. 

Theo’s eyes widened in horror and his face went white as a sheet. He looked at his fellow housemates for help, but they all backed away from him with looks on their faces that said: “You’re screwed”. 

No one in Gryffindor house was paying any attention to the terrified Slytherins. They all gathered around Hermione, who was still on the ground. Harry had his hand outstretched to try to help her up, but she had both of her hands firmly clamped over her mouth. 

“Hermione, what’s wrong?” Harry asked, trying to pry her hands from her mouth. She shook her head, panicked, and tried to push him away with her elbows. He managed to pull one of her hands away and immediately froze at what he saw. 

Hermione’s two front teeth, already quite similar to that of a chipmunk’s, were growing at a rapid pace. Everyone around them gasped in horror. Tears welled up in Hermione’s eyes. Theo looked like he was going to faint any second. 

Lavender and Parvati immediately grabbed the distraught girl’s arms and led her quickly up to the castle, most likely to the hospital wing. Harry and Ron roared with fury and it took the collective efforts of Neville, Dean, and Seamus to keep them from running at and attacking Theo. 

It didn’t end up being that big of a deal. Hermione’s teeth were quickly fixed to return to their normal size, and Hermione even got Madam Pomfrey to shrink them even further so that she was no longer buck-toothed and instead had a beautiful, perfect smile. She insisted that the whole situation was actually a positive one.

Tom, on the contrary, did not see this as a good thing. A piece of what he had come to see as being a part of Hermione was gone, and he did not like that. The circle of Slytherins in their common room that had been created to watch Bellatrix’s punishment, had been made again. This time, it was Theo kneeling at Tom’s feet in the center. 

“I had thought”, Tom said eerily calm. “That I had made my expectations of how Hermione is to be treated explicitly clear”. 

“I’m sorry!” Theo sobbed. “It was an accident! I didn’t mean…”

“Be quiet”, Tom hissed. Theo immediately obeyed, still shaking. 

“I have decided”, Tom said, addressing the rest of the room. “To use this mistake as an opportunity to show you all my new invention. Your left arm, Theodore”, he said, holding out his hand. 

Theo did not want to give Tom Riddle his arm. He would rather do anything else than give Tom Riddle his arm. But, against all of his better judgment, he gave Tom Riddle his arm. 

Tom turned Theo’s arm so that his palm was facing up, and pressed his wand to the boys’ forearm. Immediately, blinding hot pain shot through Theo’s arm. He screamed and writhed, but the pain did not let up. After what seemed like forever, the pain was gone as quick as it had appeared. 

Theo fell forward, gasping and clutching at his arm that was still tingling. Tom yanked his arm so Theo was standing up and showed Theo’s forearm to the rest of the circle. 

Branded there in black like a tattoo, was the image of a skull with a snake coming out of its mouth. 

“This”, Tom said, his long fingers hovering over the whimpering Theo’s arm. “Is how you will contact me. Press this”, he pressed the mark, causing Theo to scream in pain. “And I will come”. 

The entire circle of students stared in shock at the scene before them. They agreed with Tom and wanted to follow him, but none of them really wanted that mark branded into their arms. 

“That will be all”, Tom said calmly as if the horrors the students just witnessed never happened. “You may all head on your way. Except you, Draco. I need to speak with you”. 

The rest of the members of Slytherin house were all quick to disperse, leaving only Tom and Draco alone in the common room. Draco stood his ground, looking his older classmate in the eye. Wondering what he had to say. 

“You have always been loyal to me, Draco”, said Tom. “And I value your opinion”. He leaned closer to the blonde boy. “I must ask you, what do you know of horcruxes?”


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! The amount of support I've been receiving for this story is unbelievable! I'm thrilled you all are enjoying it! Thank you, everyone, who has been so kind!
> 
> Harry Potter is owned by J. K. Rowling

August 1995

 

Hermione’s parents went traveling for the majority for the summer, so she found herself staying mostly at the Weasley’s house. A place they liked to call the Burrow. 

Hermione didn’t know why they called it that, as it was far from a burrow in her opinion. The house was multiple stories tall, each of them looking as though they were added at different times. It did have the warm and cozy feel of a burrow though, so she had to give it that. 

While she might have had some time for peace and quiet at the Potter’s house, there was no such thing at the burrow. Something was always happening. People were playing Quidditch, the twins were blowing things up, Mr. Weasley was working noisily in his shop, and Mrs. Weasley often had their wireless playing the songs of a witch musician named Celestina Warbeck. 

Hermione might not have gotten as much summer reading done as she would have liked, but she couldn’t complain. She loved the adventure of living at the Burrow. The twins taught her how to degnome the garden, she and Ginny had many wonderful late-night talks, and Harry came over practically every day. 

The best part of staying at the burrow was that she got to spend a lot more time with Ron. He was quite nervous to have her living with them at first, but he came to enjoy it rather quickly. They went on many long walks together, he showed her around the muggle village nearby, and they spent quite a few afternoons by the lake a few miles from his house, just watching the world move by around them. 

She and Ron had grown very comfortable in their relationship so much so that they finally told Harry and Ginny that they were together. Ginny just rolled her eyes at the two of them and said that she had known for a while. Harry beamed and said that it was about time they had made it official and told him and Ginny. 

“We had been beginning to wonder when you’d finally let us in on it!” he laughed. 

Ron and Hermione’s relationship was not the only one growing stronger. Harry had finally seemed to really notice Ginny after they had gone to the Christmas Ball the past year, and Hermione could see the start of a relationship blossoming between them. She found Harry holding open doors for Ginny and being quite the gentleman to her. He would also watch her with a look of awe on his face whenever he would play Quidditch with her and her brothers, nearly getting his head taken off by the apples they would use for balls many times. 

“I guess we know that Quidditch is the way to Harry’s heart”, Hermione teased Ginny during one of their girl talks. 

Ginny just blushed, but a smile was painted on her face just the same. Hermione was thrilled that her friend was finally getting noticed by the boy she had been pining after for years. She hoped that Harry would come to his senses quickly and realize that he liked Ginny. Knowing Harry though, and how thick he could be, she just didn’t see that happening anytime soon. 

A few weeks before Hermione, Harry, and four-sevenths of the Weasley children were about to start Hogwarts, a big announcement came in the mail along with their lists of school supplies. 

“I’ve been made a prefect!” Hermione gasped with delight, shoving the letter and badge excitedly into Ginny’s line of sight. 

“Ooh! That’s wonderful!” the redhead said, clapping her hands together happily for her friend. “Congratulations Hermione!” 

“Guess our days of troublemaking are over now, George”, Fred said, shaking his head in mock sadness. 

“I suppose so, Fred”, George replied, wiping away a fake tear. 

“You’re right”, Hermione said, trying to keep a straight face as she looked at the twins. “You’d better watch what you do. Nothing’s getting by me”. She couldn’t help but crack a smile, and the twins roared with laughter. 

Suddenly, Harry appeared in the fireplace in a flash of green flames. 

“I knew you’d been made prefect, Hermione!” he said, rushing over to her. “Congratulations!” 

He had something clenched in his fist that he seemed to be trying to keep hidden. Hermione noticed this and grabbed it. She forced open his hand and beamed at the scarlet and gold badge she found there. She was about to offer him congratulations as well and ask why he was trying to hide his achievement from her when she noticed that he was looking apprehensively at Ron. 

Ron was standing apart from the rest of the group, looking away from them. Hermione gulped and looked at Harry, understanding why he hadn’t come in shouting his good fortune. Their other best friend was prone to become jealous rather quickly. Hermione remembered how upset he had gotten when she and Harry had both been invited to join the Slug Club while he had not. 

As if knowing they were thinking about him, Ron turned his head so that he was facing them. Hermione was relieved to see that he didn’t look upset at the news. On the contrary, he looked proud of them. 

“Congratulations guys!” he said, surprisingly joyful. 

Harry and Hermione looked at each other and blinked in surprise. 

“Er...Thanks, Ron”, Hermione said, gasping when he enveloped her in a surprisingly supportive hug. 

“You alright mate?” Harry asked, looking at Ron with concern. 

“Yeah. Course I am”, Ron said, giving Harry a hug of his own. 

“You sure you’re not...erm….upset?”

Ron just shook his head with a huge smile on his face. 

“I’m sure”, he said. “I am!” he added when Harry gave him an apprehensive look. “I didn’t want to be a stupid prefect anyway. They”, he gestured to Fred and George. “Would have never taken me seriously again”. 

“That’s right”, Fred said. 

“We wouldn’t have”, said George. 

“But it’s not like we ever took you seriously, to begin with”, added Fred. 

“We would have made sure to tease you though”, George said. 

Ron gestured towards the grinning twins again. Harry and Hermione beamed at each other and then at Ron, happy that their redheaded friend was not upset like they feared he would be. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------

September 1, 1995

 

As they were now prefects, Hermione and Harry had to spend the first part of the train ride to Hogwarts in the prefect compartment for a meeting and then go off to do rounds of the train. After finding a compartment with Ron and Neville and placing all of their stuff there, they headed off to the compartment that McGonagall had told them of in their letters. 

Harry and Hermione were the first to arrive to the compartment, so they made themselves comfortable while they waited for everyone else to show. Hermione was practically bouncing with how excited she was. She had brought a roll of parchment with a quill and ink bottle just in case they had to take notes, and was tapping the quill against the ink bottle. Harry was getting quite annoyed with the noise she was making and was just about to ask her to stop when the compartment door opened and the new Head Boy entered. 

It was Tom Riddle. 

Hermione immediately stopped tapping her quill against her ink bottle and looked to the floor to avoid his gaze, as she still felt awkward around Tom. Harry ground his teeth together as he glared at the older boy. He wondered how Riddle had gotten the position of Head Boy before quickly inwardly chiding himself for even thinking of such a question. Of course Tom Riddle was chosen to be the Head boy. He was beloved by all. He was the obvious choice for such a position. 

Harry felt sick to his stomach. He did not want to be forced to spend time in prefect meetings with Tom Riddle. He did not want Hermione to be forced to be around Tom Riddle. He looked to his small bushy-haired friend, who was doodling on her roll of parchment and determinedly not looking at Riddle. Harry found himself wishing that Fred or George or Lee or any other boy in the seventh year had been chosen to be Head Boy instead of Tom Riddle. 

The two Gryffindors were not alone with Tom for long, as the rest of the prefects and the Head Girl were quick to arrive. Harry was even more disappointed to see that Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson, a rather annoying and mean girl with a face like a pug, had been chosen to be prefects that year as well. He couldn’t complain about the other prefects though. There were Ernie MacMillan and Hannah Abbott (Neville’s kinda maybe sorta girlfriend that he was constantly talking about and writing to) from Hufflepuff, Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil (Parvati’s identical twin sister) from Ravenclaw, as well as the 6th-year and 7th-year prefects that Harry didn’t really know at all. 

The meeting itself was rather uneventful. Harry found himself to be quite bored while Hermione filled up her role of parchment with notes. While Hermione was entirely focused on the information being relayed to them throughout the meeting, Harry took this time to study Tom Riddle. There was something off about him and it took Harry a little while to finally figure out what it was. 

Tom hadn’t even glanced once at Hermione the entire meeting. After being a witness to Riddle’s strange fascination with his best friend, Harry found it odd that Riddle suddenly ignored her completely. He should have found this as a relief, but he couldn’t help but feel that Riddle had something sinister being planned.

Once the meeting was over, Tom and the Head Girl who’s name no one really seemed to remember, split the prefects up into groups to patrol the train. Harry and Hermione were at first happy to see that Riddle hadn’t paired himself with Hermione, but were soon dismayed to see that he had chosen Malfoy to be Hermione’s partner. Harry was about to speak up to argue about this arrangement, but Hermione stopped him from doing so, not wanting to cause a scene. 

Patrol with Malfoy was not nearly as dreadful as Hermione would have thought. Malfoy was surprisingly cordial to her and they mostly just walked in silence. They had just finished checking the last compartment they had been assigned to and Hermione was starting to head back to the compartment where Ron and Neville were waiting when Malfoy suddenly grabbed a hold of her wrist to prevent her from leaving. 

“Let go of me, Malfoy”, she snapped, tugging her arm that he held in his grasp. 

He only squeezed her arm tighter to keep a hold of her, as he looked around apprehensively with wide eyes. Once he was sure that the coast was clear, he took a deep breath and whispered, 

“I just had to warn you. Be careful around Tom Riddle”.

Hermione blinked, surprised. She thought that Malfoy and Tom were friends. 

“Just watch your back, Hermione”, he continued before she could ask him what he meant. “Have constant vigilance”. 

He then turned and headed off, leaving Hermione to stand there and confusedly ponder over the information he had just told her.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your kindness and support! Reading all of your comments makes me so happy! Thank you so much!
> 
> Things happen in this story that changes it to an M rating. ; )
> 
> Harry Potter is owned by J. K. Rowling

November 1995

 

Over the past couple of years, Tom stayed in close contact with Severus Snape. The man was very anti-muggle and anti-muggleborn and was therefore willing to assist Tom whenever he came by. Although the man was definitely a loner and didn’t get out much, he was still able to direct Tom to some people that were higher up in the wizarding community. 

One of these highly looked upon wizards was none other than Lucius Malfoy, Draco’s father. Tom was not impressed with Lucius. The man was a coward and only looking out for himself. However, he shared Tom’s views on muggles and muggleborns as well, so he was open to listening to what the boy had to say. Before long, Tom had the elder Malfoy firmly under his wing. 

Tom cleared out the Slytherin common room one night so he could be completely alone. Lucius had many connections to other witches and wizards that would be willing to join Tom’s cause. Tom and he had talked in the past about Lucius gathering all those people together, and that night was the night that Tom would be checking up on his progress. 

After waiting and waiting and waiting, Lucius’s head finally appeared in the fireplace. 

“I’m sorry for being late”, Lucius gasped, looking more than a bit stressed. “Narcissa…..”

“I do not care to hear your pathetic excuses”, Tom coolly interrupted. “How are the preparations going? Is everything moving according to plan?” 

Even through the emerald flames, Tom could see that Lucius’s face had paled considerably. 

“Well, my lord”, he began, nervously. “We’ve had a significant increase of interest in the past week. I can assure you that there are many that have joined our cause”.

“As many as you promised me?” Tom asked, his tone still sounding bored, but his flashing eyes giving away his displeasure. 

Lucius gulped. “N-n-no my lord”.

Tom said nothing. He just nodded, stood up, and started pacing slowly in front of the fireplace. Lucius’s terrified eyes watching his every move. After a few moments, Tom finally stopped his pacing. He laced his fingers together and stared at the wall opposite the fireplace so that all Lucius could see of him was his back. 

“If you have not gathered the number of people I have asked you to by Christmas, then your son will suffer the consequences of your insolence”, he said in an eerily calm voice. 

Lucius trembled, his voice became increasingly more panicked when he said, “Of course, my lord. I will not disappoint you”.

Tom stared at his entwined fingers. He didn’t want to hurt Draco. The boy had proven himself to be a dedicated, albeit cowardly, follower who was also well-liked by pretty much the entirety of Slytherin. It wouldn’t do him any good to harm the young Malfoy, but he had to do whatever it took to get his plans in motion. 

“For Draco’s sake”, Tom said. “I hope that you succeed”.

\----------------------------------------------------------------

Hermione was quickly learning that her 5th year was going to be different than any other year at Hogwarts, as this was the year they would be taking their O.W.L’s. For one, their classes had become significantly more challenging. Neville looked completely lost half the time, and Hermione had to constantly whisper explanations about what they were doing into his ear. 

Their teachers were also a lot less sympathetic towards the students and their homework load dramatically increased. Because of this, it wasn’t strange to see a fifth-year student waiting in the hospital wing for a calming draft or falling asleep at random points throughout the day after staying up all night trying to complete essay after essay. Hermione tried her best to help out her fellow classmates by creating schedules for them for when to do their homework, but they didn’t seem that appreciative. 

The seventh-years were in a similar situation, as they would be taking their N.E.W.T’s that year. Hermione was therefore dumbfounded to see that the Weasley twins, who were in their seventh year, didn’t seem to care in the slightest. In fact, they were more relaxed than ever. Hermione was constantly seeing them performing pranks on the inhabitants of Hogwarts and telling the most ridiculous jokes. 

Ron claimed that they didn’t care about school and just wanted to open a joke shop. She hoped that he was kidding, as the twins were actually quite smart and could really go far if they applied themselves in the right way, but it sure looked as though Ron was right. Fred and George had started making some products for their shop and were testing them out on students. Hermione had confiscated so much from them and had threatened to call their mother so many times without any change in their behavior, that she didn’t know what else to do. It was becoming very tiresome and annoying. She had other things to do than watch the two of them all the time. 

Things had gotten particularly bad one evening when she caught the two of them trying to feed first years some custard creams that were supposed to turn them into canaries. After yelling at the two of them with a volume and intensity that could rival Mrs. Weasley, she had to step out of the common room for some air. 

She leaned up against the wall in the corridor and took a deep breath for what felt like the first time in ages. She had been getting increasingly stressed lately and something told her that it didn't have anything to do with the mountain of school work she was being given every single day. The Slytherin’s following her had continued on from her fourth year into her fifth, but that wasn’t it either. There was something else bothering her. Something that she could not identify for the life of her. 

Lost in thought, Hermione started walking away from the portrait of the Fat Lady. She had been absentmindedly walking for some time when she realized how far she had gotten. Starting to panic, as it was after hours and she did not want to get in trouble, she quickly headed back to the portrait. 

She was quite close to her destination when she was suddenly grabbed around the arm and pulled into an empty classroom so fast that she couldn’t even let out a scream. The situation was all too familiar of the time she was accosted at the Quidditch World Cup. She tried to get a look at her abductor, but the darkness of the classroom prevented her from doing so, similarly to how the dark forest at the World Cup didn’t allow her to see the person responsible then. 

Not wanting to be haunted by questions from this encounter as well, she quickly reached into her pocket, pulled out her wand and said, “Lumos”.

A bright light erupted from the tip of her wand, illuminating the face of the person before her. When she saw who was responsible, she didn’t know whether she should be surprised or not. 

It was Tom Riddle. Of course it was Tom Riddle. She wondered if Riddle actually was her Quidditch captor, but before she could say a word or even think, he had yanked her wand out of her hand, pulled her to him, and kissed her. 

As she felt his lips move against hers, her suspicions were confirmed. Riddle was definitely the one who had kissed her at the World Cup. She stayed frozen in shock for all of a few seconds before squirming against him to get away. He wasn’t letting her go anytime soon, though. He wrapped one arm around her waist to keep her pressed up against his much larger body and had his other hand wrapped up in her curls to prevent her from pulling her face away from his. 

She squealed and screamed against his mouth and tried to hit at him with her arms, but he just continued his assault. She felt his fingers possessively squeeze her waist before moving lower to knead the plump flesh of her bottom between his fingers. She shrieked and pounded her fists into his back, but he still didn’t let up. Before she knew it, her back was pressed up against the wall and he had both of her wrists in one hand to hold her arms above her head. 

His mouth was still on top of hers and was pressing her head into the wall behind her so hard that she couldn’t move it away even an inch. His teeth were scraping against her lips and his tongue was swiping against them as well, trying to gain access to her mouth. She kept her lips tightly closed, whimpering. His free hand suddenly pinched her thigh so hard that she couldn’t help but gasp, leaving her mouth open for his taking. His tongue plundered it, entwining itself with her tongue, licking her teeth, her lips, the inside of her cheeks. 

She tried biting down on it, but he managed to skillfully evade her jaws. At the same time, she felt his hand stroke her leg, the inside of her thigh. She squeezed legs together, feeling a warmth there that she had never experienced before. He managed to snake his hand behind her to squeeze her bottom again before moving up to her heaving chest. 

She froze when he touched her breast, something that no one had touched before, and started to squeeze and knead it. When she felt him untuck her shirt from her skirt and start making his way under her shirt and up her chest, she panicked even more. She wiggled against him and tried desperately to remove her wrists from his grasp, but his hand stayed firm. 

His hand was under her shirt and over her bra, stroking her breast. Then it was under her bra and her bare breast was up against his hand. Tears started to fall out of her eyes, but she couldn’t even scream for help, as her mouth was still under his control. Her nipple was between his fingers, being felt and twisted and pulled, and she moaned despite herself, the unknown feeling between her legs strengthening. 

He finally separated his mouth from hers, and she sucked in some much-needed air. She tried to scream, but couldn’t find her voice, only whimpers and soft moans. He pressed his lips against the pulse on her neck and kissed her there. He kissed and licked and sucked her neck, most likely leaving marks, and then he stopped just as suddenly as he began. 

He removed his hand from her chest to grab her chin. He forced her to look up to meet his eyes that were clearly shining in the darkness of the classroom. Despite the lack of light, she could see that he was just as breathless as her. He leaned over, his chest pressed up against hers. She gulped, her throat felt unbearably dry as she stared into his eyes that bore into hers. His thumb stroked her abused lips.

“You’re mine”, he whispered, his voice deep and rumbling. She was terrified looking up at him. He was so big and tall, towering over her. He could take her right then and there. She could distantly hear herself whimpering. Then, all of her fears melted away in the blink of an eye, and she felt nothing. 

\------------------------------------------------------------

Hermione blinked, incredibly confused. She could not remember for the life of her why she was in an abandoned classroom when a few moments ago she was chastising Fred and George in the Gryffindor common room. She ran her hair through her curls that seemed even messier than usual, straightened her abnormally rumpled clothes, and looked around the empty classroom for the person that she was sure was there. Not being able to find anyone, she warily exited the classroom to return to the safety of her common room. 

Tom let out the breath he was holding in once she left and lifted the disillusionment charm that he had so expertly place on himself. He groaned and ran his hand through his hair. He absolutely loved the moments he was able to spare to have some time with his Hermione. He only wished he could do it more often. He knew he couldn’t though, as he didn’t know what effects being obliviated so many times would have on a person. As it was, he did this more times than he really should. He couldn’t help himself though. He could barely control himself around her. 

He wished she could remember these times they had had together. He could tell how her body was reacting to them and knew that she would grow to enjoy them as much as he did. As for now though, he couldn’t have her remembering. It would just ruin everything. 

At least he remembered. At least he could still lie awake at night and think of her delectable lips against his, her plump arse, her soft breasts. The way her milky white skin would flush when he touched her. The soft sounds she would make that started out as ones of terror and would gradually turn to moans of pleasure. Oh, he couldn’t wait to do this again. 

It was thoughts like these that kept him going.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! I have never written anything like that before! I hope you enjoyed it!


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so glad that everyone seems to be enjoying my story! If you have any question, feel free to ask them in the comments and I will try to answer them to the best of my abilities!
> 
> All rights of Harry Potter belong to J. K. Rowling

December 1995

 

It was nearly time to head home for Christmas break. Students were becoming more restless by the day and getting into more trouble than usual. This meant that the rounds that prefects took were longer and way more thorough. 

This was already tiresome, as it prevented Hermione from curling up with a nice book or spending some time with Ron, but it was even more so because of her patrolling partner. usually, every other prefect switched patrolling partners about twice a month. Hermione, on the other hand, had been stuck with Draco Malfoy ever since the first day on the train. 

She tried talking to the head girl about it, but she said that Tom was the one to pair up the prefects and that she had nothing to do with his choice. Hermione still didn’t feel comfortable around Tom Riddle and didn’t want to go anywhere near him to discuss this issue, so she just held her tongue and didn’t complain. 

Harry and Ron were not so keen to ignore the problem. Ron mentioned his displeasure about every time Hermione and Harry did something prefect related, and Harry offered to talk to Tom for her. She insisted that neither of them get into any trouble for her, though. The year was already difficult enough as it was, and she didn’t need fights breaking out between her boys and members of Slytherin house. 

Luckily Malfoy hadn’t been that bad of a partner. In fact, he hadn’t said one mean-spirited thing to her the entire year. He didn’t talk much at all actually, but when he did, he was an interesting conversationalist. It would have been almost pleasant if it weren’t so annoying that they were stuck together. 

As the year had been incredibly busy, Hermione hadn’t had much time to think on what Malfoy had told her on the train: “Be careful of Tom Riddle”. She suddenly remembered one night in bed after strangely not being able to remember a decent chunk of that afternoon. She couldn’t believe she had forgotten Malfoy’s warning. The next evening was Hermione and Draco’s turn to patrol, and she was going to take the opportunity to finally ask him what he had meant on the train. 

She said very little to him throughout most of the patrol, even less than usual, to think of how best to confront him. Malfoy seemed to notice, as he looked at her very strangely. Towards the end of their patrol route, Hermione finally decided to make her concerns known. She stepped sharply in front of Malfoy and turned to face him, forcing him to quickly stop in his tracks as to not run her over. 

“Granger?” he exclaimed in surprise after backpedaling a bit so the two of them were not so close together. “What’re you….”

“You told me on the train to be careful around Tom Riddle. What did you mean by that?” she interrupted, getting straight to the point. 

Malfoy blinked. He stared at her, frozen, fear plainly visible in his eyes. 

“What?” he asked shakily. 

Hermione huffed, crossing her arms and blowing a stray hair that had fallen in front of her face out of her eyes. “There’s something going on with Riddle. Tell me what it is!”, she insisted. 

“There’s nothing going on”, he insisted, his voice getting rather higher, his wide eyes darting around as if to see if there was anyone around to hear them. 

“Rubbish!” She snapped. “You told me to be wary of Tom Riddle. There must be a reason for that and I want to know what it is! I have….”

“Shhhhh”, he interrupted her, becoming alarmed at the rising volume of her voice. 

“I will not shush!” she huffed indignantly, becoming even louder. “I…”

“SHHHH”, he insisted again, clapping his hand over her mouth to shut her up. She shrieked and started to fight back, but he quickly whispered in her ear, “Not here”.

Hermione stopped her struggling and nodded. He removed his hand and started down the corridor, gesturing for her to follow him. He led her down a couple more corridors until they stood outside of a tapestry. He lifted it up to reveal a small passageway behind it. 

They entered together and Hermione immediately started bombarding Malfoy with questions. Malfoy held up his hands to stop her. She did, though rather reluctantly, and waited for him to explain. 

“Tom’s been getting strange.” Malfoy started, rather timidly. “He started talking about something towards the end of last year and...I dunno…I felt I had to warn you”.

“Why me?” she asked, trembling slightly. She felt she knew what Malfoy was going to say and knew for sure she wouldn’t like it. 

“He’s interested in you, Granger”, Malfoy said. He wasn’t sure if interested was the right word, obsessed was a better term, but he didn’t want to alarm her even more. 

That seemed to make her concerned enough, though, as her fears were confirmed. She didn’t like any of this one bit. 

“What was he talking about?” she shakily asked, trying to sound braver than she actually felt. Trying to sound as if this didn’t bother her as much as it did. 

“Horcruxes”, Draco spit out, clenching his fists. 

“Horcruxes?” Hermione asked. “What are….?”

“I don’t know what they are”, Draco said, his voice getting significantly softer. “But they’re not good, that’s for sure. They seem really dangerous, though, and they are involved in whatever he is planning”.

“What is he planning?” she asked. 

Draco just shook his head and started edging his way back towards the tapestry. “I’ve already said too much”, he hissed. 

Before Hermione could say another word, he had sprinted out of the hidden passageway and into the outside corridor. She ran after him, but when she got out from behind the tapestry, Draco Malfoy was nowhere in sight. 

\-----------------------------------------------------

Hermione dedicated the entire next day to figure out anything she could about horcruxes. It was the day before they would be leaving Hogwarts for Christmas break, so the library was empty except for Madam Pince, who continued to stalk the shelves as usual. Harry and Ron were disappointed with her decision to spend the day in the library, but let her go without much of a fuss. The two went off with Neville and Ginny, talking about some sort of snowball tournament that the twins had set up. 

Hermione scoured the library, looking through book after book, for something, anything, on horcruxes. She was disheartened to find nothing at all on the subject. The restricted section of the library seemed to call out to her. She wanted more than ever to enter the forbidden area, but students were not permitted to. She sighed in defeat. If Hogwarts had a book on horcruxes, which seemed incredibly dangerous, it was sure to be in there. 

Her head snapped up. There was something else she could try. She sprinted out of the library, ignoring Madam Pinces screeches about her loud footsteps, not stopping until she reached her destination. 

She knocked on the office door. 

“Come in”, came the soft voice. 

She entered timidly, suddenly very anxious to ask her question. Professor Lupin sat at his desk, his face buried in papers that he was grading. He looked up when she entered and smiled warmly at her. 

“Hello, Hermione. What brings you here? Surely you’re not asking for any assignments over the holidays”, he grinned at her. “You deserve a break, you know”. 

“Hello Professor, I just wanted to ask you something”.

“Ask away. Ask away”.

Hermione took a deep breath. “What are horcruxes?”

Professor Lupin stilled, all humor was gone from his face. He looked at her sternly. 

“Where did you hear that word?” he asked, harshly.

“I just heard someone mention them in the library, I never saw who it was”, she said quickly, becoming alarmed at her professor’s reaction. “But sir, what are they?”

“Nothing you should be concerned about”, he said, looking very concerned. “If you wouldn’t mind, Hermione, I have something urgent to complete so”, he gestured towards the door, and she gladly exited the room. 

Hermione stood in complete shock outside of Lupin’s office, very alarmed with his reaction. Whatever horcruxes are, they must be worse than she thought. She couldn’t even imagine what Tom Riddle was getting himself into, and she wasn’t even sure she wanted to. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------

Tom stared at himself in the mirror, thinking of his favorite little witch. How he missed her over the break. He thought back to their encounters that he had to regretfully wipe from her mind. How he wished he didn’t have to. How he wished that he wasn’t forced to cover up the marks he had made upon her delicate skin. The marks that claimed her as his. 

A knock sounded on the door to the room he was in, bringing him out of his reverie. 

“My lord, we are ready for you”, came the shaky voice of Lucius Malfoy. 

Tom turned to face the trembling man. It was Christmas Eve, and the meeting that Lucius had set up for him was about to begin. Tom was more than happy with Lucius’s progress in the past few weeks. He had caught a glimpse of the crowd of people that he had gathered, and was pleased to see the hundreds of wizards and witches there. 

Tom sharply nodded and walked briskly out of the room and onto the stage nearby. All talking immediately ceased. Everyone’s attention was focused solely on him. 

“I have noticed”, Tom called out to the crowd. “The love many of us seem to have for muggles. We befriend them. We marry them. We let some of their filthy mudblood children attend our schools. I am disgusted by this. The wizarding world is pure and we are tainting it more and more each day. You were all brought here because you agree that something needs to change. Something needs to be done to fix this”. 

The room was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop. 

“I am Lord Voldemort, the heir of Salazar Slytherin, and I am going to complete the plans of my forefather to rid our world of the dirt that plagues it”. 

Murmurs started amongst the crowd. 

“Who says you’re Slytherin’s heir, huh?” A man in the far back of the crowd called out. 

“Yeah! Prove it!” came other voices throughout the room. 

Tom turned to glare at Lucius, who was as white as a sheet, and raised his hands. The room quieted down again. A high-pitched hissing sound suddenly came from the back of Tom’s throat. A woman in the crowd screeched and more were quick to join her as a humongous snake made its way through the people and up next to Tom on the stage. Tom stroked the creature and grinned at the horror-struck faces of the people below. 

“This is Nagini”, he announced. “Don’t worry, she doesn’t bite”, he chuckled. “Unless I tell her to”, he said, all amusement gone from his voice as he produced the hissing sounds again. 

Nagini slithered off the stage and into the crowd, stopping in front of the man that had first doubted Tom. The man screamed in fear and yelped out his apologies. Tom merely laughed and called Nagini back to him. 

“I cannot complete Slytherin’s mission alone”, Tom said once the great snake was beside him again. “I need all of you to pledge your support to me and this cause if you want the wizarding world to thrive again”. 

He paused. Nothing but silence followed until cheers suddenly rang out in the front if the room. The rest of the room followed suit and before long, every witch and wizard in the room was gladly declaring their support for Tom Riddle, who was standing triumphantly onstage. 

Every witch and wizard, that, except for one. Draco Malfoy stood silently in the crowd next to Blaise Zabini and Theo Nott, who were among those who started the cheers for Riddle. He clutched the thing in his pocket that he had stolen from Riddle’s desk earlier that day as he thought desperately of what to do next. 

\-------------------------------------------------------

Though Hermione was wishing she could spend Christmas with her parents, who were on a skiing vacation, she was still having a lovely time at the burrow. She was with Ron, Ginny, and the rest of the Weasleys, as well as the Potters and their friends. She chose not to go with her parents, as she didn’t like skiing much, and wasn’t regretting her decision at all. 

It was also Ron and her first Christmas together as a couple, and they spent it curled up together by the fire and kissing under as many mistletoes as they could. It was really nice to spend the holiday together, as she had been really distant to him at Hogwarts, what with schoolwork, prefect duties, and the feeling that she was always missing something that caused her to get incredibly anxious. 

That night, after hours of playing in the snow, eating Mrs. Weasley’s incredible cooking, listening to James and Sirius’s hilarious stories, and laughing at the twins trying to drown out the sounds of Celestina Warbeck over the wireless with their own horrific singing, Hermione was pooped and ready for bed. She bayed everyone goodnight and headed up to Ginny’s room, where she was staying. 

She was about to change into her pajamas when she was startled by a tapping sound at the window. She turned her head to see an enormous eagle owl staring back at her with a package tied to its leg. After she opened the window and relieved the bird of its package, it took off without so much as a fuss for treats. 

Hermione stared, puzzled, at the retreating owl, before turning her attention to the package and becoming even more confused. It was addressed to her from Draco Malfoy. She opened it to reveal a small black diary. She opened the book and froze. On the inside of the front cover was written, Tom Riddle.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning!  
> The last scene in this chapter has some mature content. If that is not your cup of tea, feel free to skip it as it is not detrimental to the plot. 
> 
> Thank you all for being so wonderful! I really appreciate it!
> 
> J. K. Rowling owns all rights to Harry Potter

January 1996

 

Christmas break was over far too quickly for anyone’s liking. Additionally, being thrown back into the overwhelming amount of work at Hogwarts was a little alarming. If Hermione thought that the number of things they had to do before was difficult, she thoroughly mistaken. She was able to stay calm, though, and continue to do her best, unlike many of her other fellow fifth-years. Poor Hannah Abbott had seven different meltdowns in the past two weeks. 

Being so busy, meant that Hermione didn’t have much time to research more about horcruxes or figure out the mystery behind the curiously blank diary that Malfoy sent her. There seemed to be nothing wrong with the diary, and the little research she was able to do brought no results. She tried everything from her ink-revealing erasure to all sorts of different spells but wasn’t able to find anything. 

The diary seemed to be just a diary. But then why did Malfoy go out of his way to send it to her?

One day, when she was one of the few people up in the Gryffindor common room, as almost everyone else had chosen to go out and watch the Hufflepuff vs. Ravenclaw Quidditch game, she had dedicated herself to the diary. She sighed and started tapping absentmindedly on the thing with her quill, when she realized to her horror, that she was getting ink all over it. She ran to get a handkerchief to clean it up, but when she came back, all of the droplets of ink had disappeared. 

She stared, confused, at the diary. How had her mess just disappeared like that? She looked at the quill still in her hand and then at the innocent-looking diary on the table in front of her. She raised her quill over one of the yellow pages and a drop of ink fell down. The ink stayed there, glistening, for all of five seconds before seeping into the paper. 

Hermione’s eyes widened. She stayed still, completely shocked. Bringing herself together, she wrote in the diary:

'Hello'

The word disappeared, just as the ink blot had. Hermione waited for a few seconds and before she knew it, words appeared on the page. But it wasn’t anything she had written, nor was it written in her handwriting. 

'Hello there. How have you come across my diary?'

Hermione froze again. What was going on? She wrote again.

'Who are you?'

She waited. Luckily the diary was quick to reply. 

'My name is Tom. Who are you and how have you come across my diary?'

Hermione did not like this one bit. She was definitely not going to tell this thing who she was. 

'You wouldn’t happen to be Tom Riddle, would you?'

She asked the diary, afraid of the answer. The diary didn’t say anything for a while and Hermione was starting to get a bit paranoid before it finally responded. 

'I am'

She quickly wrote back. 

'But that’s impossible. You can’t be the actual Tom Riddle.' 

Hermione swore she felt the book vibrate just a little, almost as if it were laughing. 

'Clever. Clever. No, I am not the actual Tom Riddle, just a memory of his. Now could you tell me who you are?'

Hermione slammed the diary closed. She was breathing hard. The few students that were present in the common room were looking over at her, concerned, but she didn’t pay any attention to them. She had never heard of someone putting their memory in another object before. Chills ran up and down her body. Whatever this was, it wasn’t good. 

She jumped up, shoved the diary into her bag, and took off to the library. As almost everyone in the entire school was out watching the game, her footsteps against the hard marble floors seemed ridiculously loud. She went around a corner and ran right into a large body, sending her sprawling on the floor. 

“Sorry, Cormac”, she said looking up at who she had just ran into. “I wasn’t looking where I was going”. 

“No problem, Hermione”, the large boy grinned. Grabbing her hand and pulling her to her feet with such force that she thought he was going to rip her arm out of its socket. 

“What are you doing here?” She asked, rubbing her arm. “I would’ve thought you’d be watching the match”. 

“No way”, he scoffed. “I have no interest in the game if I’m not involved”. Hermione was vividly reminded why she didn’t care much for Mclaggen. 

“Erm. Ok”, she said, noticing that he had come uncomfortably close to her. “I’d best be heading off then. I’ve got lots of work to do”.

“Hang on, hang on”, he said, grabbing her arm. She scowled and glared at him, but he didn’t seem to notice. “I’m sure it’s not that much work. Why not come to have some fun with me?”

“No thank you”, she snapped, tugging her arm away from his grip. 

He only squeezed her arm harder though, and before she knew it, her back was pressed up against the wall and he was standing over her, pinning her to it. Something about this situation seemed familiar, but she couldn’t figure out why. 

“Let me go, Mclaggen”, she said, trying to not let her panic show. 

“I don’t think I will”, he said. “I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now, and I’m not gonna stop just cuz you ask me to”. He leaned his face closer to her horror-struck one. 

“Petrificus totalus!” A voice rang out. 

Mclaggen’s limbs snapped together and he fell backward, landing quite harshly on the hard floor. Hermione turned to see Draco Malfoy, Blaise Zabini, and Theodore Nott standing at the end of the corridor. Malfoy had his wand out and looked very angry. Zabini looked unbothered, for the most part, and Nott was shaking with fear, his eyes darting around wildly. 

“You alright, Granger?” Malfoy asked, coming closer to her. Hermione nodded, still in shock at the identities of her rescuers. 

“We’ve got to tell Tom”, Blaise murmured to Malfoy, so softly that Hermione could barely hear. She frowned. Why did Riddle need to know about this? Malfoy didn’t seem particularly pleased with this idea either and looked like he was about to say something when another voice rang out. 

“What’s going on here?”

Speak of the devil. It was Tom Riddle. His dark eyes looked at Hermione, then at Mclaggen on the floor. His expression hardened as he made the connection as to what happened. 

“Was this bloke bothering you, Hermione?” He asked, walking over to the group. Before Hermione could say a word, Nott answered for her. 

“Yes!” The twitchy boy exclaimed. “He was. He had her pressed up against the wall. He looked like he was gonna take advantage of her or something”. 

Tom’s already hard expression grew even colder. He pointed his wand at the frozen boy on the floor and lifted the full-body-bind. Mclaggen rose to his knees, trembling. Before anyone could do anything though, Tom raised his wand again. 

“Crucio!”

Mclaggen screamed in pain and started rolling on the floor. His face was scrunched in a look of pure agony. Hermione screamed, but no one paid attention to her. Tom was looking at the tortured Mclaggen with a look of maniacal glee. Hermione pressed her hand to her face and tried not to vomit. 

“Stop it!” She cried. 

The four Slytherins turned to face her. Tom waved his wand again and whatever was torturing Mclaggen ended. The boy gasped and curled up into a ball. 

“This boy forced himself on you, did he not?” Tom asked. 

“Yes, but….”

“Well don’t you want him punished, then?”

Hermione paused. She definitely wanted Mclaggen to be punished for what he had done to her. As she looked at the crying boy on the floor though, she knew that she would never wish what Tom had done on anybody, not even Mclaggen. 

“Not like that”, she said, glaring up at the tall boy in front of her. 

Tom blinked. No one said anything for a while. 

“I apologize”, Tom finally said. “I shouldn’t have made you witness that. I just wanted him to be punished for what he did to you”. He reached out to touch her cheek, but she turned her head away. 

She caught something shiny glint out of the corner of her eye and noticed that he had on an old-looking ring that she had never seen before. This was the first time she had seen Tom up close in quite some time and he looked different. He was paler than usual, that was for sure, but there was something else that had changed that she just couldn’t put her finger on. 

“Well that wasn’t your job”, she said harshly, her face turning pink. 

He nodded. “I just want you to know that I only had your best interests at heart, Hermione”. 

The way he said her name made her shiver. She didn’t like it. She nodded at him and turned on her heel to continue to the library, her hands shaking. She couldn’t believe what she had just witnessed. Tom Riddle was nothing but trouble and his diary was certainly bad news. Hermione promised then and there to do whatever she could to solve the mystery of Tom Riddle. 

She remained unaware of the boy watching her, a hungry glint in his eye. 

“You’ll know everything soon enough, my dear”, he whispered to her retreating back. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------

Hermione’s limbs were tied spread-eagle to the four corners of the desk she was laying on. Cloth was shoved in her mouth to prevent her from speaking and her tie was tied around her mouth so she couldn’t spit it out. She pulled and pulled on the ropes tying her down, but they wouldn’t budge. She tried to bite through her tie to no avail. She screamed and cried but no one seemed to hear her. 

“Mmfmfngmf!” she tried to speak but only ended up producing incoherent mumbles. 

She felt someone’s hand on her knee and lifted her head to see Tom Riddle standing in front of her. He was smiling and staring at her hungrily. She thrashed about in her bonds some more, her face glowing red when he chuckled. She glared at him, but he continued to laugh at her desperate attempts to get free. 

“Don’t worry, darling”, he said as he slowly slid his hand up her leg. “Before long, we won’t have to meet under these circumstances. You’ll be mine and I won’t have to constantly steal you away”.

His hand reached the end of her skirt. She froze. His eyes gleamed, and he started stroking her inner thigh. His hand retreating farther and farther up her leg under her skirt as he did so. She screeched louder than ever. 

“No one can hear you, love”, he said, stopping his hand so that his fingertips just barely grazed her knickers. “I put noise-canceling charms on the door”, he said gleefully, gesturing with his free hand to the closed door of the classroom. “This”, he said, touching her soft lips that had her tie being run through them. “Is just for fun”. 

She whimpered, tears running down her face. She wanted more than anything for this nightmare to end. He removed his hand from under her skirt and she breathed a sigh of relief, before immediately becoming panicked again when he started unbuttoning her blouse. 

Before long, the only thing covering her heaving chest was her plain white bra. His fingers grazed her flat stomach, giving her goosebumps wherever he touched. He then brought his attention back to her skirt, lifting it up to bare her cotton knickers to his piercing gaze. He waved his wand and the desk she was tied on top of grew so. He waited a few moments before waving it again so that it stopped, but the damage had already been done. Poor Hermione’s arms and legs were stretched obscenely apart from one another. 

He licked his lips as he stared at her. She sobbed, a feeling of warmth appearing in the pit of her stomach. His hands were on her body, stroking and squeezing and pinching at anything he could see. He kissed her cheeks, her nose, her mouth. He pulled at each of her two lips individually with his teeth, sucking and licking them as he did so. 

“I want you to feel good, my dear”, he whispered as he started to pull her bra up and over her breasts. “I want you to feel so good. I want you to need to be with me as much as I need to be with you.” 

Hermione couldn’t move. She couldn’t cry anymore. She could only stay frozen in shock and fear. Her breasts were suddenly free and bare to his gaze. Her nipples were pink and hard. Tom groaned at the sight. He flicked one of the tender rosy nubs and she squealed, the warmth she was feeling steadily increasing. He chuckled. 

“I’m here, love”, he whispered huskily in her ear. “I’m here to take care of you. Don’t worry. Don’t worry”. 

Three things then happened at once that completely rocked Hermione’s world. 

One, Tom started kneading her breast with one of his hands, her nipple pebbling between his fingers as he pulled and twisted it. 

Two, he brought his mouth down onto her other nipple and started sucking on it. He expertly swirled his tongue around the poor nub and gave it a soft nibble. 

Third, his other hand lowered to her crotch and slipped under knickers. Hermione had no idea what he was doing in there. All she knew was that his fingers were moving and moving around, stroking and tickling places that she never knew existed, much less touched before. 

All of her systems were going into overdrive. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Her body thrashed around as much as it could, trying to get him to stop or keep going, she didn’t know which. All that she was aware of was that the pressure she was feeling was building and building and building. 

All of a sudden, it burst. Pleasure she never could have dreamed of enveloped her. She screamed and thrashed in ecstasy, riding out her high until….

Until Hermione awoke, sweaty and gasping. She looked wildly around her. She was in the safety of her bed. She could make out the forms of Parvati and Lavender, Lavender’s snores the only sound in the room other than her heavy breathing. 

Hermione put a hand to her chest, feeling her rapidly beating heart. What had just happened? 

“It was only a dream. It was only a dream”, she said, trying to calm herself down. 

It was only a dream, right? It had to have been a dream. But then why on earth had it felt so real.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You have all been so lovely and nice! Thank you so much!
> 
> Harry Potter belongs to J. K. Rowling

April 1996

 

After she found out that the diary contained a memory of Tom Riddle, Hermione assumed that it would be much easier to figure out its secrets. She was disappointed to find no more information than she already had. With O.W.Ls practically around the corner, she was forced to completely stop her research on the diary and Horcruxes and instead focus more on her schooling. 

Hermione was becoming more and more short-tempered by the day. Her classmates attributed this to be because of the upcoming O.W.Ls and while this was a huge factor, another reason as to why she was behaving this way was her frustration with not being able to find out more about Horcruxes and the diary. After one particularly nasty blowout after someone interrupted Hermione’s studying, everyone knew better than to bother her while she was ‘in the zone’. One evening, while Hermione was studying in the Gryffindor common room, Ginny ignored this and plopped down in front of Hermione with the biggest smile on her face. 

“Harry asked me to go with him to Hogsmeade”, she said, her eyes gleaming. 

“That’s wonderful!” Hermione exclaimed, delighted for her friend. 

Ginny was practically glowing with happiness. 

“We were down at the Quidditch pitch, just flying around, and he asked me out of nowhere!” Ginny gushed. “I almost flew into one of the goalposts I was so excited!”

“I’m so happy for you, Ginny”, Hermione beamed. “It really is about time”. 

“So what are your plans?” Ginny asked. “What are you and Ron gonna do in Hogsmeade?”

Hermione paused. Ron had been very excited to spend a weekend in Hogsmeade with her after an unfairly scheduled Quidditch practice on Valentines Day meant he couldn’t go then. On the other hand, though, the Hogsmeade trip created the perfect opportunity for her to do more research on horcruxes and whatever was in the diary. If there was anything relating to them in the Hogwarts library, it had to be in the restricted section, which she had never been able to access. Harry has an invisibility cloak that his father had given to him that Christmas though, and him being in Hogsmeade created the perfect opportunity for her to “borrow” it. 

“Unfortunately”, she said solemnly to Ginny. “I’m afraid I won’t be going to Hogsmeade this weekend. O.W.Ls are coming up, you know”. 

“Oh Hermione”, Ginny sighed, rolling her eyes. “You’ve done nothing but study this entire year. You deserve a break. You're brilliant, and one weekend off will not change that”. 

Hermione wanted nothing more than to hug her friend and agree with her. She just couldn’t pass up this opportunity though. 

“I’m sorry, Ginny. I just can’t”. 

“I thought as much”, Ginny sadly said. “But I had to try. Ron’s not gonna be happy though”. 

Indeed, Ron wasn’t happy that Hermione wouldn’t be going to Hogsmeade. A few months ago, he might have tried to convince her into changing her mind, but with O.W.Ls just over a month away, he wasn’t going to push his luck. He just nodded solemnly and wished her luck with her studies. Ron’s rejected look very nearly caused Hermione to change her mind. She could find another time to take the cloak, right? But in her heart, she knew that she couldn’t wait any longer. She had been working so hard for so long and was dying to figure out any information she could. 

\----------------------------------------------------------

It was much easier to sneak into the restricted section than she would have thought. Madam Pince may have eagle-eyes, but even she couldn’t see under invisibility cloaks. Hermione felt bad stealing Harry’s cloak, but she told herself it wasn’t stealing, only borrowing. Besides, she would give it back. She was thankful that she had the cloak after seeing the sheer number of Slytherins in the corridors. She recognized all of them as some of her stalkers. She shivered and pulled the cloak tighter around her as if it would make her even more invisible. 

Hermione wished that the floors of the library were carpeted. She was forced to move unbearably slowly as to not make a noise and therefore bring Madam Pince running to where she stood. Knowing that she didn’t have much time made her a little desperate. She had no idea which books would help her and she couldn’t possibly go through them all. She only picked out a couple of books when she knew she really needed to get back to Gryffindor tower. 

After she returned Harry’s cloak to its rightful place, she immediately started dissecting the books she had brought back with her. They were all disgusting and most had nothing to do with what she was researching. It wasn’t until she got to a book called Secrets of the Darkest Arts that she found anything related to horcruxes. 

This book had a whole section dedicated to the subject and Hermione found herself growing colder and colder as she kept reading. According to the book:

A Horcrux is an object in which a Dark wizard or witch has hidden a fragment of his or her soul for the purpose of attaining immortality. Horcruxes can only be created after committing murder, the supreme act of evil.

Hermione was frozen in shock. She could barely think. All those months and months of trying to figure out what horcruxes were finally came to fruition, but she found that she would almost have rathered to have not found out after all. A sense of foreboding formed in the pit of her stomach and she wanted to throw up. The more she read, it became apparently clear to her that Tom Riddle had created a horcrux, that being the diary. 

But other than her gut feeling, she had no proof. No one would believe her if she told them that she thought Tom Riddle created a horcrux. There was absolutely no way that smart, bright, handsome, young Tom Riddle had created one of the darkest magical objects by committing one of the most heinous acts one could make: murder. 

She had no clue what to do next. 

\----------------------------------------------------

Like Hermione, Tom had a very productive afternoon. Unlike her, he had gone to Hogsmeade, but not with friends as she would have. He was on a very different business. Waiting outside the Hogs Head for him was Severus Snape. 

Tom was significantly grateful for Severus. He never had to threaten or bribe the man. His hatred of muggles and mudbloods and Tom’s plans to put them in their place were more than enough for him to do as he was told. 

Severus had brought him some very interesting items over the course of the year, as being an employee of Borgin and Burke’s gave him access to such things, few of which were actually useful but interesting nonetheless. One of the items that caught Tom’s attention was an old gold ring that was inset with a black stone that had some interesting marking on it. Severus claimed that it belonged to Tom’s grandfather, whose son (Tom’s uncle) sold it out of desperation and need for food. Had it come from anyone else, Tom probably wouldn’t have believed them. He trusted Severus though and knew that the greasy man was telling the truth. He had worn the ring ever since. 

Severus had only brought two items with him on this most recent trip to Hogsmeade, but like the ring, they were more interesting than anything else he had brought. One was a gold locket with an S that resembled a snake on the front in glittering green stone. The other was a small golden cup with two small handles, a badger engraved on the side, and a few jewels. Severus claimed that these two items belonged to Salazar Slytherin and Helga Hufflepuff, two of the four founders of Hogwarts, and Tom knew for certain that he was telling the truth. He could feel the power radiating from the objects and couldn’t help but be enamored by them. 

After thanking Severus, something he rarely ever did with any of his followers, he made his way back up to the castle. He knew exactly what he wanted to do with the items, he just needed a safe place to keep them until the time was right. He had done a lot of searching for such a place in Hogwarts and a few weeks ago, had finally found exactly what he was looking for. 

On the seventh floor of the castle, opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy, was the Room of Hidden Things. It was a place where he could hide his objects and no one would ever find them. After much investigation of the place, he also found that a passageway out of the castle could appear in the room. This would be useful if he ever needed a way to get in or out of the school undetected. 

None of his followers knew of this room, not even the loyal Draco Malfoy and his friends. He couldn’t risk this secret getting out. It was far too precious and far too important for his plan to succeed. 

\---------------------------------------------

Hermione woke in a cold sweat, shaking. She sat up quickly and touched her face, her arms, her torso. Everything was normal. She sighed and fell back onto her soft bed, shaking her head. Her dreams of being dominated by Tom Riddle that started just a bit after Christmas were becoming more and more frequent. She absolutely despised them. She had no idea why she was having them, especially after learning of the horrid things he had surely done. 

She pressed her hand to her forehead, still breathing heavily. Her face was burning hot as if she had a fever. The stress of exams, Tom Riddle, and the continuous watching of Slytherins was really getting to her. She still had no idea of how to go to Dumbledore about Tom. They had never really spoken before, and she had no idea if he would believe her or not. 

Guilt plagued her every time she thought of how she was keeping her best friends in the dark about the situation she was facing. If only she would tell Harry and Ron. But she had no idea how they would react. They would most likely flip out and make everything harder on her. No, it was best that they didn’t know anything. They were still worried about her, something that made her feel even guiltier. 

She groaned and covered her face with one of her pillows. She desperately wished that all of this would be over soon and life would get back to normal.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of my favorite things to think about is how tall different characters are. Here are the heights that I picture these characters to be.   
> Hermione- 5’4  
> Tom- 6’4  
> Harry- 5’11  
> Ron- 6’3  
> Draco- 6’0  
> Neville- 5’10  
> Ginny- 5’7  
> Theo- 5’9  
> Blaise- 6’0  
> Fred/George- 6’1  
> Dean- 5’11  
> Seamus- 5’8  
> Lavender- 5’6  
> Parvati- 5’2  
> These are just a few! If you want to know the heights I have in mind for other characters, please let me know! I absolutely LOVE this stuff!
> 
> Harry Potter is owned by J. K. Rowling

June 1996

 

O.W.Ls and N.E.W.Ts were exactly one week away and tensions were higher than ever. There was no chance of free time left for any of the fifth-years or seventh-years. Even prefect duties had been taken away from them and were all given to the sixth-year prefects. They had their own tests, but they weren’t nearly as important as the ones their classmates were taking. 

Hermione was ten times more stressed than she was a month ago if that was even possible. She was studying for hours and hours and driving everyone crazy with how she would snap at people to be quiet in the already pretty quiet common room. She had to put the problem of Tom Riddle on the backburner, something that both relieved her and made her even more anxious. She kept the diary with her at all times, but she never opened it, much less wrote in it, again. 

She had barely talked to Ron, Harry, Neville, or Ginny, something that made her even more upset than she already washed. She wished that she could talk with her friends about how she was feeling but knew deep in her heart that she couldn’t, no matter how hard it was. 

She and Ron had not had any proper alone time together since Christmas, something that both of them were rather upset about. Ron was still a little miffed that she wouldn’t go on the last trip to Hogsmeade with him, but he was doing his best to make sure she didn’t know how he was feeling. Hermione adored him even more for that and her guilty conscience continued to grow. She vowed that after O.W.Ls she would go on as many dates with Ron as he wanted and find a way to tell the boys about Tom Riddle. 

Hermione was not only bothering her classmates but her professors as well. She was constantly going to them and asking them questions even though she knew all the answers anyway. On one such visit to McGonagall’s office, the older witch directed her to a stack of papers on her desk, one of which would certainly answer whatever question the young girl had on her mind. So while McGonagall graded papers, Hermione searched through others. 

The papers that McGonagall had directed her to were all written by seventh-year students. Hermione was entranced by them. She couldn’t help but read through a few that had nothing to do with what she was wondering about. She couldn’t wait till she was in her seventh year. 

Hermione shook her head to get back on track for probably the sixth or seventh time since she entered McGonagall’s office. She had to focus. She needed to find the answer. She was just finishing up scanning over a paper that happened to belong to Alicia Spinnet when another paper caught her eye. 

It definitely looked the nicest out of all the ones there. The handwriting was immaculate and there were no ink stains on the parchment. Hermione was just focusing on it when she saw who it belonged to. 

Tom Riddle

He sure was popping up everywhere. She rolled her eyes and started to throw the paper aside, as she wanted to keep her mind clear from Tom Riddle while she prepared for her exams. She stopped herself though when she noticed something about the paper. Tom had signed it ‘Tom M. Riddle’. 

She had never known that Tom had had a middle name, much less that it began with ‘M’. She never thought about it all really. She didn’t know why that piece of information had suddenly become so interesting to her out of the blue. 

She almost turned to ask McGonagall what Tom’s middle initial stood for, before stopping herself. The old witch was very busy with her papers and looked almost as stressed as Hermione felt with the upcoming exams. Hermione didn’t want to bother her. This was something she could figure out on her own. 

She quickly thanked McGonagall and ran out of the office, even though she never found the answer to the question she had been looking for in the first place. Hermione pondered where to go to find the information she sought. She couldn’t ask Tom himself, or any of the other Slytherins. She could probably ask Malfoy. He had been consistently kind to her during their prefect patrols, though he talked significantly less than he usually did, which still wasn’t a lot, after their last conversation about Tom Riddle before Christmas. She didn’t know where he was though and was about to resign herself to going to ask Slughorn when she remembered something and took off towards the trophy room. 

Filch may be the most annoying caretaker in the world, but he did keep fantastic records of all of the prefects and head boys and girls. All of these resides in the trophy room, which Hermione arrived to slightly out of breath. She found the dusty records that had probably never been touched by anyone besides Filch and immediately began scouring them. She finally found Tom’s name. His full name. 

Tom Marvolo Riddle: Prefect 1993-1995. Head Boy 1995-1996. 

Marvolo. What a peculiar name. She had never heard of anything like it before. It had to have come from a wizard in his family, she reasoned (Hermione figured that he was at least a halfblood, as he had been sorted into Slytherin house). 

Now that she found what she was looking for, and rather quickly at that, she was starting to slip back into reality. There were O.W.Ls to study for after all. As she started to head back to Gryffindor tower though, she couldn’t help but feel something nagging in her brain about the name she had discovered. It was such a strange name, but she could have sworn that she had seen it before. 

Despite her better judgment, Hermione changed her destination from the warmth of the Gryffindor common room to the library. The library was packed full of studying students. Every single table was filled nearly to the brim. People were hurrying through the shelves, desperately trying to find whatever they were looking for. 

Luckily for Hermione, the part of the library that she was headed to was empty, as no one had any need of it for their studying for exams. The records of wizarding families took up a whole row of shelves in the library. It was a bit of a daunting task to go through them all, and Hermione had very little time as it was. She started from the more recent side and hope for the best. 

She hadn’t been searching for long when she found it. Marvolo Gaunt, father of Morfin and Merope Gaunt. Marvolo appeared to have died a while ago and Merope seemed to have died around seventeen years ago. 

Hermione froze, realization hitting her. She knew exactly where she had seen the name Marvolo before. She had seen it in her third year when she and her friends were trying to find more about the heir of Slytherin. Marvolo Gaunt was one of Slytherin's heirs. 

She looked back at the records with wide eyes. Tom wasn’t in the records, but Merope Gaunt died around the time that he would have been born. It was entirely possible that he was her son and therefore be….

A memory flashed through her brain. One that seemed completely new to her. She was running down the corridor to Dumbledore’s office. It was nearing the end of her third year, and she had just discovered that the attacks were being caused by a basilisk. Tom was there, stopping her. She was being forced by him to look through a mirror and see large yellow eyes. She felt her body seize up and heard someone whisper “obliviate”. 

Hermione came back into reality, breathing heavily. She had wondered why she was the only student to have missing memories of her petrification. Tom took them away or at least hid them from her. She slid down onto the floor and put her head into her hands, still trying to process what she had just remembered. 

It was clear. Tom caused all of the attacks. Tom was the heir of Slytherin. 

She remembered, horrified, how she speculated that he had created a horcrux. There was no doubt in her mind now that he had. Tom Riddle was an incredibly dangerous madman. 

She started trembling. She had to do something. She could not hold this information inside. She had to tell somebody. She had to tell Dumbledore. 

Hermione sprang to her feet and took off towards the headmaster's office, unaware of the strange stares she was receiving from her peers. She was only a few corridors away when she heard someone call out to her. 

“Hermione! Hey!”

It was Harry. He and Ron were making their way towards her. 

“Where’ve you been?” Her dark-haired friend asked. “You said that you were gonna go check on something before joining us for lunch. Lunch was over an hour…you alright?” He asked, his expression suddenly turning serious once he got closer to Hermione and saw the look of horror and terror that was still present on her face. 

“What’s going on?” Ron asked, noticing her distress as well and reaching out to touch her shoulder. 

Hermione couldn’t hold herself together any longer. The months of keeping all of this to herself had taken its toll on her and she just couldn’t take it any longer. Before either of the boys could do more than blink, Hermione had covered her face with her hands and was sobbing. 

Harry and Ron looked at each other, alarmed. Ron hesitantly wrapped his arms around his distraught girlfriend, and Harry reached out to pat her shoulder. She leaned her head into Ron but didn’t stop crying. 

After a few moments, Hermione was finally able to pull herself together. She freed herself from Ron’s comforting arms, even though she really didn’t want to, and shook her head to clear it. 

“I’ve got to go to Dumbledore”, she said once she finished wiping her eyes, and took off. 

Harry and Ron exchanged looks of confusion before running after their bushy-haired friend. The boys tried to ask her what was going on, but she wouldn’t say anything. Once they arrived at Dumbledore’s office, Hermione finally froze. She didn’t know the password. How was she supposed to get in?

Harry and Ron were panting on either side of her. 

“Hermione! What…?” Harry asked, but he was interrupted by the gargoyle that was guarding the spiral staircase to the headmaster’s office stepped aside. 

Hermione wasted no time running up the steps and the boys followed her closely. They reached the door and Hermione lifted her hand to knock, but the door swung open before she could do so. The trio slowly entered the large circular office. Windows and portraits of old people covered the walls. There were books of all kinds and many cool-looking objects. The boys looked around in awe, but Hermione was entirely focused on the old headmaster sitting behind his desk. 

“Hello, Hermione. Harry. Ron. What brings you three here?” Dumbledore asked, smiling at them. The twinkle that was usually present in his eye, however, was gone, and Hermione had a feeling that he had an understanding of how severe the situation was. 

“I know who opened the Chamber of Secrets two years ago”, she announced. 

Harry and Ron looked at her and then each other with wide eyes. Dumbledore’s expression became grave. 

“Who was it, my dear?” He asked kindly yet seriously. 

Hermione gulped. Now was the moment of truth. Now was the point of no return. 

“Tom Riddle”, she said confidently. “Tom Riddle is the heir of Slytherin and he was behind all of the attacks”.

“I knew it”, Harry hissed. 

“How do you know?” Ron asked, looking at her with a furrowed brow. 

Hermione proceeded to tell them of how she had discovered his middle name, the connection it had to Slytherin, and the memory she has remembered as well as the fact that Tom took it from her. 

Dumbledore was silent. Harry and Ron were less so. They were horrified to learn the information she had just told them and were going on and on about how they always knew that Tom was trouble. Hermione noticed one of the portraits starting to cough heavily and quickly leave its frame, but she didn’t pay it any mind. She raised her hand to quiet the boys. 

“I also”, she said, shakily. “Have reason to believe that Tom created a horcrux”. 

Dumbledore stood up, looking grimmer than she had ever seen. 

“Why do you think this, Miss Granger?” He asked her. 

“Someone sent me this”, she said, pulling out the diary. “And I did some research on it. I am certain that it’s a horcrux. It has Tom’s name on it, so I know it belonged to him”, she gulped and handed the diary over to Professor Dumbledore who promptly took it and immediately started looking through it with narrowed eyes. 

After a few tense moments of silence, while Dumbledore looked through the book, the headmaster finally raised his head to address the three students. 

“You are right, Miss Granger”, he said. “It appears that Mr. Riddle has made this diary into a horcrux”. 

Hermione closed her eyes and took a shuddered breath. She was proud of herself for being right, yet she was also horrified that what she had theorized actually turned out to be true. 

“I’m confused”, Ron said, bringing Hermione’s attention to him. “What does this mean?”

“It means he murdered someone and was, therefore, able to put a part of his soul into an object, preventing him from dying”, she said, tears brimming in her eyes. 

“And this diary”, Harry said slowly. “Is one of these objects? A horcrux?”

Hermione nodded. 

“Wait”, said Ron, looking around the room horrified. “Does that mean that Riddle killed somebody?”

“Myrtle”, Harry piped up. “He caused Myrtle’s death since he’s the heir of Slytherin. He probably used her death to create this”.

Dumbledore looked at Harry through his half-moon spectacles. 

“I think that you are right, Harry. I must ask though”, he turned to face Hermione. “Who sent you this diary?”

Hermione gulped. 

“I don’t know”, she whispered. “The package was sent anonymously”. She didn’t know why she wasn’t telling them of Draco’s involvement. She figured that since he helped her figure this all out that she was indebted to him. It wouldn’t be right to throw him under the bus. 

Dumbledore didn’t seem to believe her. He was appraising her in such a way that she felt as though she were being x-rayed. Thankfully, Dumbledore didn’t question her any further. 

“What do we do now?” Harry asked, seriously. 

“Now”, Dumbledore said, looking at the three of them. “You two boys will take Miss Granger to the hospital wing. She needs a calming draft”.

Hermione certainly needed a calming draft, but she wanted to know what Dumbledore was going to do about Tom. Harry seemed to want to know too because he opened his mouth to protest Dumbledore’s order before the headmaster interrupted him. 

“Don’t you worry. I’ll see to it that Mr. Riddle will be taken care of”.

\------------------------------------------------

Theodore Nott burst into the Slytherin common room in a panic. Everyone turned to stare at the gasping boy. He turned to Tom, who was sitting in the coziest chair by the fire. 

“They know you’re the heir”, Theo wheezed out. People all around the room gasped and murmured. Tom shot up from his seat and was in front of Theo in seconds. 

“What do you mean?” He asked, his face blank of emotion. 

“Granger found out”, Theo whispered, absolutely terrified. “She found out and she told Dumbledore. One of the portraits in his office told me and I came as quick as I could”. 

Tom clenched his fists and looked around at the silent students around him. It would appear that his plans would have to be acted quicker than he had planned. 

“I must leave you all”, he announced to the common room. “But I will still keep in contact, and when I call”. He paused to look every single person in the eye. “You will answer me”. 

And with that, he exited the room. When the Aurors were called in to collect Tom, he was nowhere to be found. They searched everywhere and even with James Potter and his friend's incredible knowledge of the castle and its secrets hideouts and passageways, they still came up empty. 

Unbeknownst to them, Tom had escaped the school without any trouble through the passageway he had found in the Room of Hidden Things. He did not take the locket or cup with him, as he figured they were safest where they were. He did regret that he wouldn’t be able to take his little witch with him, but there was no way that she could as she was with Dumbledore and the dynamic duo at that point. It didn’t matter though. Even if she were alone, he still probably wouldn’t take her. It wasn’t time yet, but it soon would be.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so thrilled with the response to my story! Thank you all for reading it and sharing your support! You are the best!
> 
> Harry Potter is owned by J. K. Rowling

August 1996

 

The world changed when Tom Riddle escaped from Hogwarts that June day. Ever since then, muggles and muggleborns started being captured or tortured or even killed. These were being caused by masked wizards that called themselves ‘death eaters’. Whenever a death eater would kill, they would send up this awful green image of a snake coming out of the mouth of a skull into the sky over their victim. 

Poor Hermione was a wreck. She had managed to still perform excellently on her O.W.Ls thanks to many many many calming droughts from Madam Pomfrey, but she wasn’t able to take any over the summer. She was having such a dreadful time living at home the first few days back, constantly having nightmares and worrying about Tom and the death eaters, that her parents decided to send her to the Burrow for the summer. 

She did feel better staying with wizards, but she kept getting nightmares. After a few weeks, the nightmares started to fade, but they were quickly replaced with the dreams of Tom dominating her that she hadn’t had for months. She had one practically every night now and suffered from very little sleep because of them. 

It didn’t help that after Ron and Harry had gotten over the shock of learning everything she had found out about Tom Riddle, they had gotten angry with her for keeping it all from them. She knew that she would never forget the looks of betrayal and hurt that had appeared on the faces of her two best friends in the entire world. She knew that those looks would haunt her for the rest of her days. 

They didn’t yell at her, which was good. Unfortunately, though, they didn’t speak to her at all for the rest of the year. They just stayed together in silence, which Hermione felt was even worse. She still had Ginny to talk to though, as well as Neville while they were still at school, and while they were extremely helpful and sweet, it just wasn’t the same. 

Ginny said that they just needed some time to calm down, which was thankfully true. The two boys approached her once she came to the Burrow and they had a tearful talk. Hermione apologized profusely and they forgave her. They didn’t let her off easy though. They made sure she understood how much it had hurt them to think that she didn’t trust them. After many big hugs and a promise to never keep secrets from each other, their friendship was back to normal. 

Hermione was not keeping fully true to her bargain though, and she was hating herself for it. While she did tell the boys of her nightmares and that she was having dreams about Tom, she never mentioned that the dreams were sexual. She didn’t want to see how they would take that news and she felt incredibly awkward just thinking about the dreams, much less talking about them. 

She also still didn’t tell them that Draco gave her the diary. She knew they would go to Dumbledore and she didn’t want Draco to get into trouble. Even if Dumbledore didn’t do anything bad to him, Tom would most certainly find out about his involvement if she told, and he would most likely punish Draco severely. She just couldn’t risk it. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------

Though Tom had been successful in introducing his death eaters to the world, he was not as pleased as he would normally have been. He was going through withdrawals. Withdrawals from being with Hermione. His body ached just thinking about her. He missed her. He missed everything about her. He missed her wild untamable hair. He missed her large brown doe-eyes that were framed by their thick dark lashes. He missed her soft body and how it felt when he ran his hands over it or when he had it pressed up against his. He groaned. It was nearly unbearable to be without her for so long. 

While he might not have been able to see her in person over the summer, he was still able to send her dreams of him doing all sorts of things to her. They weren’t the real thing, but he enjoyed them immensely nonetheless. He remembered when he first started sending her the dreams back at school, and how he would see her all flushed the next day. He loved that color on her. It was satisfying to know that he had that effect on her, even when what had caused it was fake. These dreams were not only sent to her out of fun, but it was also a way to make her think more about him. He knew that she was wary of him, and by sending her dreams of the two of them engaged in sexual activities, she would hopefully warm up to him. 

He was brought sharply out of his thoughts of Hermione by Draco entering the room that he was in. Tom had been staying with the Malfoys ever since he escaped from Hogwarts the previous June. Lucius was more than happy to appease him and provided Tom with everything he wanted to make himself feel more comfortable. He was even given his own personal house elf, a creature named Dobby, to attend to his every need. 

However, not every member of the household was as excited about Tom staying there as Lucius was. Narcissa Malfoy, the matriarch of the household, was very clear in her dislike for him even if she didn’t say it outright. She was Bellatrix’s older sister, he remembered, and surely knew of how he had tortured her for hurting Hermione a couple years ago. He wouldn’t have minded much, as he honestly understood her apprehension to him, were it not for the fact that she appeared to have changed Draco’s opinion of him as well. 

The young Malfoy had been much more closed off to Tom ever since he returned home from school to find the older boy living with them. He seemed to be avoiding Tom whenever possible and even kept his distance when Blaise and Theo popped by, as they often did. Blaise seemed to have noticed Draco’s change in behavior as well, but when Tom questioned him on it, the Italian boy just shrugged and refused to say anything more. 

“Hello Draco”, Tom said, turning to face the blonde boy. “What brings you here?” 

Draco didn’t say anything for a bit. He just stood there in the doorway and shifted his weight from foot to foot as he seemed to ponder what to say. 

“What are you planning to do about Hermione?” he finally said, keeping his gaze away from Tom’s. 

“What do you mean?” Tom asked, his brow furrowed. 

“I mean”, Draco took a deep breath. “How are you going to convince her to join you? What are you going to do to her to bring her over?”

“She’ll come to me of her own free will”, Tom smiled as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “As the year goes by and more and more mudbloods and muggles are tortured and killed, she will understand that the safest place to be is by my side”.

“Why on earth would she think that?” Draco asked before he could stop himself. 

Tom bristled, becoming annoyed with the younger boy. “I have been sending her dreams for months now of what the two of us would be like as a couple. These will slowly warm her up to the fact that she is meant to be mine. She will come to me and she will want to”. He insisted. 

“I don’t think she will”, Draco said softly. Tom glared at him and Draco quickly tried to defend his claim.

“She’s Gryffindor’s golden girl for God’s sake! Do you really think she’s going to leave everyone she loves and push aside her own values to join you?”

Tom was seething, his hands were shaking. “She will”, he said through his teeth, trying not to do something to Draco that he might regret later. “She will. You may leave now, Draco”. He waved his hand toward the door, dismissing the boy without any room for arguing. 

Draco still opened his mouth in an attempt to do just that though, but quickly closed when he saw how upset Tom was. He sighed and left the room, rubbing his hand over his face.

Tom sat down and laid back in his chair. He closed his eyes and took some deep breaths to calm himself down. What right did Draco have to question his motives? Hermione would join him and Draco needed to accept that. It was then and there that Tom knew for certain though, that he could no longer trust Draco as he once did. 

\----------------------------------------------------

December 1996

 

The months spent at Hogwarts were just as stressful as the ones spent at the Burrow. The Daily Prophet mentioned how the attacks were getting worse and worse and how they were happening more frequently. Hermione felt sick whenever she read the articles but forced herself to read them anyway. Even though Ron and Harry insisted otherwise, she felt responsible for everything that was happening. If she had just gone to Dumbledore earlier, then Tom probably wouldn’t have gotten away and all this horror wouldn’t be happening. 

While the teachers tried their best to make the students feel safe, an atmosphere of fear hovered all over the school. Many kids were taken out by their parents as the attacks got worse. Hermione saw Parvati crying to Lavender that she would probably be sent home soon. 

At least the work that they had been assigned was busying enough that Hermione could block everything else out of her mind. She dedicated herself to not poking her nose in things she shouldn’t and just focusing on her schoolwork. Even Harry and Ron, who wanted to do the opposite of her and help them with the conflict as much as they could, agreed that school was a thing they should be focusing on at the moment. The more they learned, the stronger in their magic they would be. 

Unfortunately for Hermione, and fortunately for the boys, Dumbledore had come to them early in the school year with a proposition. He had asked them for their help in figuring out what else Tom might have used as a horcrux and possible ideas as to where he might have hidden them. Harry and Ron had immediately jumped to the task and, against her better judgment, Hermione did too. 

For the three of them, it meant doing as much research as they could on the objects, discussing what they knew of Tom Riddle, and going to Dumbledore’s office whenever he called a meeting so they could all share what they had learned. For his part, Dumbledore frequently took trips away from the school. There was much speculation among the students about where he goes off to on these journeys away, but only Hermione, Harry, and Ron knew the true nature of what he was doing. 

Dumbledore had been searching far and wide for the mysteries of Tom Riddle’s past. He had gone to the orphanage where he was raised but found that he hadn’t been back there for a couple of years. On his most recent trip, which he had just come back from, he had tracked down the Gaunts. Like Hermione found in the wizard records, only Morfin was still alive. 

After some severe questioning, Dumbledore had found that Merope Gaunt had gone off and married a muggle, which had made her father so upset that he died. That muggle’s name was Tom Riddle, which meant that the Tom Riddle that they knew was actually Tom Riddle Jr. He also told Dumbledore that Tom Riddle Sr. had died mysteriously last year, and also that he had a visitor of his own a few months before who stole his prized family ring from him. 

The Gryffindor trio insisted that the intruder was Tom, as Hermione remembered seeing Tom wear an old ring before, and Dumbledore agreed that that seemed to be the case. They also agreed that Tom was the person that killed his father and would most definitely use his murder to make the ring he stole into a horcrux if he hadn’t already. 

All of this made Hermione sick to her stomach. She couldn’t believe that Tom had killed another person and could possibly have created another horcrux because of it. They still hadn’t figured out a way to destroy the horcrux that they had, which was hidden safely away in Dumbledore’s office. Hermione just wanted more than ever for this nightmare to be over and life to go back to normal. 

\-----------------------------------------

Every student at Hogwarts had gone home for Christmas break, which made Tom’s entering and roaming the school significantly easier than it would have been otherwise. His disillusionment charms were powerful, but he was relieved that he would have an even less chance of being discovered. His mission was a complete success. He had gone in, gotten the information he needed, and was on his way out. 

It really was too easy. 

He only wished that Hermione was there, he would have loved to have seen her. He contented himself with the feeling, however, that if his plans were going successfully, she would be with him soon enough.

Now to Albania.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that I stated earlier in the story that Morfin sold the ring and Snape gave it to Tom, and that is not a mistake. Snape was the one to steal the ring from Morfin and he just told Tom that Morfin had sold it to him. He saw a bit of himself in Morfin and felt sorry for him. He didn’t want Tom to go visit and possibly do something to hurt the poor man. Dumbledore and the trio just speculated that Tom was the one to steal the ring, but they are right in the fact that he has it.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think I'll be able to update on Saturday or Sunday, so here's another chapter! I hope you all enjoy!
> 
> Harry Potter is owned by J. K. Rowling

January 1997

 

Hermione was standing in the center of a large room. Her arms were stretched above her head, tied to the ceiling. She looked around. There was no one nearby. She pulled on her restraints, but they didn’t budge. She tried walking away so that she could hopefully pull herself away from where she was attached to the ceiling, but that didn’t work either. A low chuckle sounded from somewhere in the dark room, and she shivered. 

Tom Riddle walked out of the shadows towards her. 

“Hello my sweet”, he said to her, an awful grin on his face. “Did you miss me?”

She spat in his face in response. Tom didn’t seem too upset by that reaction. He just wiped away the spit and sighed, looking at her as if she were a misbehaving child. 

“Tut tut. It really is such an immature thing to spit at someone, Hermione”, he said. Hermione found it very annoying how amused he was. “You’re supposed to be a mentor for others aren’t you? It isn’t good for you to do such a thing, it makes you less reputable”. 

He was walking closer to her. Hermione twisted in her bonds to try and get away from him, but to no avail. 

“Don’t worry my dear”, he said reaching out to grab her chin and held her still. He looked into her eyes and leaned in closer to her face. “I still think you’re more than respectable, even when you do behave like a child”. 

She shook her head to get him to let go of it, causing hair to fall into her face. He lifted one hand to pull the hair that had fallen to cover her face out of the way. He then used his other hand to squeezed her cheeks together like one would a child and laughed at the indignant noise Hermione made. “Oh you are so adorable like this, Hermione”, he said. 

He took away the hand that was holding back her hair and booped her on the nose. She tried to pull her face away, but he just squeezed her cheeks harder to hold her still. This caused her lips to jut out even more, something that Tom noticed right away. He moved his free hand to touch her lips, running his fingers over them. He caught her bottom lip between his fingers and pulled it away from her face, grinning maniacally at how she tried to form words and failed to. 

Tom then let her lip go, but before they had even a second of a reprieve, he was kissing them. Because of the way he was holding her face, his tongue easily swept into her mouth. She tried biting it, but he squeezed her harder so that her jaws were forced open and she couldn’t close them. He was kissing her open-mouthed and she was absolutely disgusted. Right when she was about to gag, his tongue was out of her mouth and her bottom lip was between his teeth. He was softly biting it, not hard enough to hurt, but enough that it was uncomfortable. He pulled it like did before with his fingers. He swiped his tongue over it. He bit it hard enough that Hermione thought he was going to draw blood, but then released it before that could happen. 

Tom removed his hand from her cheeks, and Hermione immediately stretched her mouth, thankful that it was out of that uncomfortable position. Her cheeks were sore, her lips were surely bruised and marked, and the fire that appeared in her stomach that happened whenever she was in a situation like this with Tom was starting to burn. 

Hermione only had a few seconds of a break before Tom raised his wand at the rope that was holding her in place. The rope started to shorten, pulling Hermione closer and closer to the ceiling. She shrieked and screamed at Tom to stop. He finally did, but she was still left on the very very tips of her toes, which was very uncomfortable. 

She stood completely still, scared that if she moved a muscle she would become off-balanced and fall, which would put all of her weight onto her arms. Tom circled her, like a predator would its prey, his eyes gleaming. Tom reached out and touched her as he circled her. Her stomach. Her raised arms. Her breasts. Her rear. Her thighs. He touched everything he saw as if it were his. 

Then, out of nowhere, Tom stopped so that he was directly in front of her. Hermione looked up to see him towering over her and shivered. Even though she was raised up as high as she was, she was still so much shorter than her captor. She was shorter than practically all of her friends, so she was used to feeling small. No one though, not even Ron who was just about as tall as the young man before her, made her feel as tiny and as inconsequential as Tom did. 

He raised his wand and Hermione gasped to see her clothes disappear so that she was just left in her knickers. He also seemed to make the room feel significantly colder because her nipples immediately hardened once they were exposed to the air. Tom groaned.

“You are so lovely, darling”, he said reaching out to touch one of her small pink nubs. “So perfect”. He pinched her nipple and she gasped. 

He grinned and did the same to the other before rolling them between his fingers. Hermione clenched her teeth together to try not to make a sound. The fire that was burning down below was growing and she wanted it all to stop. 

Tom started circling her again, touching every inch of her body except what was covered by her knickers, saying “perfect” every time his fingers grazed her. He stopped again so that he was directly behind her, his hands possessively on her waist. He squeezed the flesh there before traveling lower to squeeze her bottom over her knickers. He then grabbed the waistband of her knickers but didn’t lower them like Hermione thought he would. Instead, he raised them up so that the fabric slipped between her nether lips and her buttcheeks to create a wedgie. 

Hermione had never been given a wedgie before, and she decided that she didn’t like them at all. She ordered Tom breathily to stop, but he paid her no attention and continued to pull her knickers higher and higher. Tom then lowered his other hand to make sure that all of the fabric of her knickers was in the crack of her nether region other than the part he was holding out in the back. 

Suddenly Hermione was being lifted up into the air by her knickers. She shrieked and screeched as all of her weight was being put on the most sensitive part of her body. Tom continued to ignore her, but she heard him chuckling as he lifted her higher and higher. Hermione then heard something being lowered from the ceiling and saw Tom attach a hook on a chain to her knickers. Once she was secure, he left her hanging there and walked around so he was facing her. She watched him frown in concentration and wave his wand so she was brought up even higher, finally stopping when she was eye level with him. He then shortened the rope that was holding her hands in place so that they were back up over her head, but was careful not to shorten it too much that any of her weight was on her arms. He bent down under her and smiled to see that her knickers were barely visible. Only a tiny bit of white fabric poked out from between her puffy lips. 

Satisfied, Tom stepped back to admire his work. A pleasant smile appearing on his face at what he saw. Hermione was wriggling around in the air. Her legs flailing around, trying to find something that could take some of her weight off of her knickers. Tears were falling out of her eyes because of her discomfort and Tom quickly wiped them away. 

“Shh Shh. Don’t cry my love”, he said. “This is going to be fun. You’ll see”. 

He stroked the fabric that was all bunched up between her lower lips. She trembled. He tapped the fabric that covered a certain part of her body that was all a bundle of nerves and she jumped, squealing. He grinned. 

“I told you you’d enjoy this, my darling dear”, he said, huskily. 

Hermione wasn’t enjoying this. Other than that sudden burst of pleasure that she felt when Tom touched that area, she was quite uncomfortable. Her mouth was dry and she was focusing entirely on breathing. 

Tom then brought his hands back up to her breasts. Kneading them in his hands. Pinching and rolling her nipples between his fingers. Hermione groaned despite herself. She hated seeing the look of satisfaction that painted Tom’s face at the noise. That may have felt good, but it did not mean she was enjoying this at all. Before she could tell Tom so, he had grabbed her by the hair and pulled her into another kiss. 

Her lips were still sore from their last assault, but her cries of discomfort were swallowed by Tom’s mouth over hers. He kept one hand in her hair to hold her still while his other hand continued to move around her body. He allowed her lips a couple of breaks as he moved to kiss, bite, and suckle at places on her neck, but he kept his mouth locked firmly on hers for the most part. 

Hermione's lower area burned with her discomfort slowly turning into pain. Tears were falling freely from her eyes. Thankfully that was when she was released from that torture and awoke with a strangled gasp. 

Hermione rolled over and cried into her pillow. Her entire body trembled. That was the most intense out of all of her dreams she had had in a while. It also felt the most real. She reached her hand between her legs and was relieved to find that there was no wedgie there. Why was she having these dreams? She wanted them to stop. What could she do to make them stop? 

After crying for a good few minutes, she was finally able to calm down. She hiccuped and curled herself up into the fetal position as if that would make her safe from any more dreams. Pure hatred for Tom Riddle coursed through her body. Whatever these dreams were, they were caused by him. For a second, in her exhausted, terrified, emotionally wrecked state, she found herself wishing to whoever would listen that Tom Riddle would burn in hell. 

\-----------------------------------------------

Tom Riddle himself was having a very pleasant evening. He sighed in contentment over the dream he had just sent his beloved. It was one of his favorites. Most of the dreams he had sent to her in the past had been of them lying in bed and him ravishing her there with his mouth and hands. He liked to spice things up on occasion with restraints and stuff. They were really quite fun and he hoped to do some things like that with Hermione once she was with him in person. 

He especially wanted to try out the wedgie thing he had shown her that night. She had looked so delectable hanging there by her knickers, her nether lips all puffy and red and just begging to be kissed. 

The beauty of the dreams was that they were happening in real time and she was, therefore, reacting in the dream how she would react in real life. Unfortunately, she was still resisting. He knew she was enjoying his menstruations if her moans and groans and other sweet sounds she made were anything to go by. He wished that she would just submit to him. It would be so much easier for the pair of them. Once she did, he’d know that she was finally ready, and he could take her away to be with him. 

He sighed and closed his eyes, replaying the beautiful dream that he had concocted in his mind. He couldn’t wait for the time when they would no longer be dreams and would be a reality.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for being so wonderful!
> 
> Harry Potter is owned by J. K. Rowling

February 1997

 

Hermione, Harry, and Ron had continued to work with Dumbledore over the past couple of months. They hadn’t seen their headmaster for a while, as he had gone on one of his many trips to who knows where, but the three of them continued their research and their discussions. They hadn’t gotten very far. Actually, they hadn’t really made any progress at all and it was quite frustrating. What made it worse was that they were arguing more and more due to this frustration. The attacks on the muggles and muggleborns were increasing and everyone was getting significantly more stressed. 

The trio was relieved when Dumbledore finally came back from his journey. They immediately ran up to his office upon hearing of his return and proceeded to bombard him with questions about what he had found. Dumbledore had just calmly raised his hands to quiet the teens down. 

“I had traversed down Knockturn Alley to see if Mr. Riddle had procured anything from any of the shops there”, the old man said once Hermione, Harry, and Ron were all silent. “And spoke with the owner of one of the more dangerous stores, Mr. Borgin from Borgin and Burke’s”.

“I know of that place”, Ron spoke up. “Dad found loads of stuff there that violated all sorts of laws”.

“What’s Knockturn Alley?” Hermione asked. 

“It’s a part of Diagon Alley where all of the shady stuff happens”, Ron answered. “You know. Where all the criminals hang out”. 

“Sounds like a place where Riddle would go”, Harry muttered. 

“I don’t know”, Hermione said, frowning. “Tom seems too classy to go into a place like that”. 

“He’s a murderer and a madman, Hermione”, Harry said, starting to get exasperated. “It’s the exact sort of place he would go”. 

Hermione ignored Harry. “What did Mr. Borgin say?” she asked the headmaster. 

“He wouldn’t say anything at first, but with a little coaxing I was able to gather that two particularly powerful and valuable items had recently gone missing from his shop”, Dumbledore said.

“What were they?” Harry asked. Three pairs of eyes were fixed on their headmaster, all of them completely silent and focused. 

“It appears that” Dumbledore started. “For some time, Borgin and Burke’s contained objects that belonged to two of the three founders of Hogwarts. Helga Hufflepuff and Salazar Slytherin, to be exact. The two items that were missing were a locket that belonged to Slytherin and a cup that belonged to Hufflepuff”. 

“And you think that Tom took these items?” Hermione asked. 

“I think that it is reasonable to assume that he did”, Dumbledore said, stroking his beard. 

“He must’ve taken them to create more horcruxes!” Ron exclaimed. 

“Well, he’s the heir of Slytherin, so the locket I get, but why would he take Hufflepuff’s cup?” Harry asked. 

Dumbledore just looked at Harry thoughtfully. 

“Tom always had a flare for dramatics”, Dumbledore slowly said. “And he never did anything without a point. I believe that once he had an object that belonged to one of the four founders and had the opportunity to possess the other, he jumped on that chance”. 

The three Gryffindors paused to take in Dumbledore’s words. 

“Does that mean”, Hermione piped up. “That Tom will be looking for objects from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw as well?” 

“I think that that is a fair assumption”, Dumbledore said, nodding. 

“Well, we’ve got to get to them first then!” Harry yelped. “What kind of objects did Gryffindor and Ravenclaw own?” 

“The sword of Gryffindor was Godric Gryffindor’s most famous item”, Dumbledore answered his calm tone quite the opposite from Harry’s frantic one. “And it is safe, here in this room”. 

“What about Ravenclaw?” Ron asked

“Ravenclaw had a famous diadem that was lost for years”, Hermione said, scratching her chin as she pondered. “But as I said, it’s lost. No one knows where it is, so I don’t know how in the world Tom would have gone about finding it”. 

“And how will we find it so he doesn’t get it?” Harry asked

Dumbledore smiled his twinkle-eyed smile for the first time since they started this conversation. 

“There may be someone who could help us with that”, he said. 

\------------------------------------------

The Grey lady was the ghost of Ravenclaw house and was always very quiet. She was so obscure that Harry and Ron hadn’t even known that she existed. She was very pretty for a ghost, with long dark hair and a soft face that had a constant look of sadness upon it. She surprisingly turned out to be Helena Ravenclaw, Rowena Ravenclaw’s daughter, who had stolen the diadem from her mother and had hidden it in a forest in Albania.

“Well that narrows it down”, Ron grumbled. "Albania’s an entire country. It’ll take forever to search for it". 

Fortunately, they wouldn’t have to search the country of Albania for a tiny crown. Unfortunately, that was because Tom Riddle had already come in to question the Grey Lady over Christmas Break, and had surely already found it. 

Things were getting more serious and the trio realized that they needed to find a way to destroy the horcruxes that Tom was most definitely making. After a couple days of arguing, during which Dumbledore had left the school again to go on another trip, they finally agreed to talk about it with Professor Lupin. 

They had talked about going to the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor earlier in the year, but Dumbledore had asked them to keep all of the information about horcruxes to themselves. Things were getting serious though, and the trio agreed that they needed to use as many resources as they could to succeed. 

Lupin reacted to them asking about horcruxes similarly to how he reacted to when Hermione asked him about the topic previously. He demanded to know why they were asking about that dark topic, giving Hermione a pointed look. They managed to partly follow Dumbledore’s orders by not telling him that it was Tom Riddle who was creating horcruxes and that Dumbledore was just having them gather information on them for his own reasons. 

Lupin looked like he wanted to argue, but he respected Dumbledore so he didn’t. He ran his hands through his greying hair, thinking. 

“A horcrux can only be completely destroyed if its container is destroyed beyond all magical repair”, Lupin said. “There aren’t many things powerful enough to accomplish that. Fiendfyre could work, but it’s extremely dangerous, complicated, and difficult to control”.

Ron started to ask what Fiendfyre was, but Hermione quickly shushed him. She didn’t want to disrupt Lupin. 

“There’s always basilisk venom”, the professor continued. “It only has one cure, phoenix tears, but those are incredibly rare. I don’t know where someone could possibly get the venom though, basilisks haven’t been seen in a long long time”.

Hermione gasped. The other three turned to her. 

“I know where a basilisk is”, she said, her eyes wide. 

\--------------------------------------------------------

While Hermione didn’t know the exact location of the great snake, she did know for sure that it was somewhere inside the school. She ran out of Professor Lupin’s office, with Harry and Ron quick at her heels, and started making her way to the library, which was always her go-to-place for information of any kind. 

“All we’ve got to do is find the Chamber of Secrets, and then we’ve found the basilisk”, she was saying to the boys as she ran. 

“Well that should be a piece of cake, now shouldn’t it”, Ron said, sarcastically. “They’ve been looking for the chamber for years and no one has been able to find it”.

“We’ve just got to look harder”, Hermione insisted as they reached the second floor. “We need to….” she suddenly stopped, Ron just barely catching himself from falling into her and Harry, unable to do the same, crashed into Ron. 

Hermione ignored the indignant Ron and sheepish Harry on the floor and tried to focus on the noise she had just heard. After locating which direction it was coming from, she took off down the corridor to her left. 

“Hermione! Where you going?” Harry called out to her, standing up with Ron. “The library is on the floor below us. You of all people should know where it is”.

Hermione ignored him and didn’t stop running until she reached the room where the intense wailing was coming. It was a girls bathroom. Water was seeping out from under the door, creating puddles in the hallway. This was the bathroom in which Myrtle Warren died three years previously. She had come back as a ghost since then to haunt all those who used to bully and torment her, but the ministry intervened, forcing her to stop and take up residence at the place of her death. She made everyone who entered the bathroom quite miserable with her moping and frequent tantrums that flooded the place, so everyone collectively avoided it. 

An idea formed in Hermione’s mind, and she entered the bathroom. Harry and Ron arrived just as she was going in. Ron made to follow her, but Harry held him back. 

“It’s a girls bathroom, mate”, he said. 

The boys waited outside for their friend to return. They could hear Myrtle’s wails stop and start over and over again for some time. After what seemed like forever, Hermione emerged victoriously. 

“It’s in here”, she whispered, excitedly. “Come on”, she gestured for them to follow. The boys hesitated. “There’s no one else in there. You’re not going to get in trouble”, she said, rolling her eyes. “Come on!”

The boys reluctantly followed her into the lavatory. The floor was covered in water and Myrtle could be heard weeping in one of the stalls. Hermione stepped in front of the row of chipped sinks that were under a large cracked mirror. 

“Myrtle said that she saw these giant yellow eyes appear from here”, she pointed to sink. 

Myrtle wailed even louder at Hermione’s words, but everyone ignored her. 

“I think that the entrance to the chamber is in one of these sinks”, she said. 

“But which one?” Ron asked. 

“I don’t know”, Hermione said, studying them. “We’ll just have to look for clues. Come on”. 

The three Gryffindors knelt in front of the sinks and inspected every inch of them. At one point, water gushed out of one of them and landed all in Ron’s hair, who sputtered and started complaining loudly. 

“Ron shut up”, Harry said suddenly. “I think I’ve found something”. 

Hermione and Ron peered closely to where Harry was looking. On the side of the tap of one of the sinks, was a little snake. 

“Nice eye, Harry”, Hermione said. 

“Jackpot”, Ron grinned. 

The three of them immediately ran up to Dumbledore, who had just gotten back from his most recent trip, and told him of everything they had found. He listened to them with a serious expression on his face the entire time. He congratulated them on finding the chamber, but then sent them right off back to the Gryffindor common room, telling them that he would take care of everything. 

The ministry of magic was contacted. Hermione had no idea what Dumbledore had told them, but aurors were soon flooding the school, James Potter and Sirius Black among them. Nothing happened that day, nor the day after that. While the aurors agreed that Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom did indeed hold the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, they had had no success so far of opening it. 

Finally, after bringing in a wizarding linguist who happened to know parseltongue, they were able to enter the chamber. Hermione, Harry, and Ron were unable to do anything but anxiously wonder what was going on in there. After a few hours of worrying, they were called to Dumbledore’s office. 

Dumbledore stood there smiling. 

“The basilisk was slain”, he announced. 

“What about the venom?” Hermione asked. 

Dumbledore reached into his robes and pulled out a small silver dagger. 

“Do you know of the properties of Goblin’s silver. Miss Granger?” he asked her with a twinkle in his eye. 

“Of course”, Hermione said, confused with what Dumbledore was saying. “Goblin’s silver is forged with goblin magic. Weapons made with it have special properties such as…” she suddenly stopped talking and gasped, understanding what Dumbledore meant. 

“What? What?” Ron was asking, looking between Hermione and Dumbledore, incredibly confused. “What kind of properties? Why is this important?”

“Goblin’s silver imbibes only which strengthens it!” Hermione cried with glee. 

Upon looking at Harry and Ron’s still confused faces, she said, “It means that it takes on the properties of things that make it even stronger. That dagger”, she pointed at the dagger in Dumbledore’s hand. “Is Goblin’s silver and it was used to stab the basilisk, right?” she asked. 

“Quite right, Miss Granger”, Dumbledore said, still twinkling. 

“Wait”, said Harry. “Does that mean that that dagger has basilisk venom in it?” he asked, gesturing to the dagger. 

“It does!” Ron gasped, finally understanding. “It does, and we can use it to destroy horcruxes, can’t we?” 

Dumbledore smiled at their three excited faces and pulled something else out of his robes. It was the diary, but not how they had last seen it. The diary had a huge hole in it and was smoking slightly. 

Hermione, Harry, and Ron cheered, thrilled that things were finally starting to look up for them. 

\----------------------------------------------------

Tom sat up straight, clutching his chest. Something was wrong. Something was very very wrong. He ran out of his room to the place in Malfoy manor in which he kept the diary. He had let Draco hold onto it once he had first made it into a horcrux, but had taken it back to hide it here soon after. He opened the door. It was gone. Tom slid to the floor in shock. There was no doubt in his mind that someone had found out about his horcruxes and destroyed the diary. 

For the first time in his life, Tom felt afraid. There was someone onto his plan. Someone that was clever enough to figure everything out. Dumbledore. It must be Dumbledore. Intense hatred for the old headmaster burned throughout Tom’s body. He looked down at the ring on his finger. The ring that had once belonged to the Gaunts. He clenched his fist. He was no longer safe. He would have to make another horcrux. 

Part of him wanted to make more than one, but the more rational side of him told him to wait. There was no telling what would happen to him if he split his soul up that many times. There was one thing that he couldn’t wait on any longer though. He needed Hermione. He desperately needed her in order for him to be able to keep going. She might not be willing to be by his side yet, but she will be soon. 

It was time that Hogwarts truly met Lord Voldemort.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your amazing comments! I am so happy that you are invested in the story! I just wanted to let you know that Tom has no idea who sent the diary away. He had given it to Draco to hold onto for a bit but had taken it back to hide soon after. Draco had stolen it from where Tom had hidden it, so to Tom, any one of his followers could have been the one to betray him. Draco’s also at school at the moment, so Tom can’t get to him, yet. 
> 
> J. K. Rowling owns the rights to Harry Potter.

February 28, 1997

 

Blaise and Theo walked purposefully through the halls, their expressions grim. Dumbledore was gone on another one of his trips and Tom had given the pair of them specific instructions to do during this time that they were going to do their absolute best to follow. They were surprised when Tom had told them not to involve Draco but didn’t ask. Tom had his reasons for everything and they didn’t want to possibly get on his bad side by questioning his plans. 

It was the Slytherin vs. Ravenclaw Quidditch match, which meant that most of the school was outside watching the game. It also meant that the library would likely only have one resident, a small bushy-haired fiery Gryffindor who didn’t watch the games if her friends weren’t playing. The two boys peeked in at her from outside the library. She was hunched over some books and focusing so much on her work that she didn’t notice her watchers. 

Theo was shaking. He looked up at the taller and much more stoic Blaise. The dark-haired Italian didn’t look the least bit bothered by what they were to do. Theo wished that he could be more like his friend and not be in a state of worry. He also wished that Draco was with them. He felt a lot less anxious when the blonde boy was around. 

Hermione’s sigh brought Theo back to the present. The girl had her eyes closed and was stretching, leaning back in her chair. Theo noticed how Blaise’s eyes locked on the small bit of stomach that appeared when she stretched. She had large bags under her eyes. It was easy to see that she was exhausted. She rubbed her eyes and gathered her stuff to leave. Blaise pulled Theo and himself back behind a suit of armor that was by the library doors. 

Hermione soon exited the library, completely unaware of the Theo and Blaise. The two boys waited a bit before following her up the stairs to Gryffindor tower. They were careful to stay out of her line of sight, yet close enough that they could still see her. 

When they reached the sixth floor and Hermione turned into an empty corridor, the boys made their move. They ran forward. Just as Hermione was turning around to see the owners of the footsteps she was hearing Blaise stupefied her. Hermione fell forwards, but Blaise caught her before she could hit the floor. 

Looking at the unconscious witch in his arms, Blaise realized that he never really knew how small she actually was till that moment. Hermione was quite short and it was obvious, especially when she was with Potter and Weasley, but she carried herself in such a way that made her seem taller than she really was. Even Theo, who was short himself, was significantly taller than her, and Blaise towered over her. 

Blaise scooped her up bridal style and headed off to the room that Tom had told them about, Theo right behind him. 

\------------------------------------------------------------

Hermione groaned. She tried to rub her hand on her face and froze. She couldn’t move her hand. She tried moving her other hand. She couldn’t move it either. She tried her feet. They wouldn’t budge as well. She snapped open her eyes. She was tied down on a large four-poster bed, just like in many of her dreams. 

Hermione started to hyperventilate. ‘This is only a dream this is only a dream.’ But it wasn’t a dream. This was her reality, which was turning into a nightmare. 

She screamed for help, startling the person sitting at the end of the bed. She hadn’t noticed him. It was Theodore Nott. 

“Nott!” She gasped. “What’s going on? Get me out of here!” 

The boy just looked at her with wide eyes and gulped. 

“Nott!” She cried, desperately tugging on her restraints. Tears were falling out of her eyes. This couldn’t be happening. 

“I’m sorry Hermione”, Theo whispered so softly that she could barely hear him. “I can’t help you”. 

“Nott!” She cried again, even more desperately. “Nott, please! Please! Please help me! Please let me go! You’ve got to let me go!”

She was a terrified wreck, crying hysterically, pleading for her captor to free her. 

“I can’t”, Theodore was whispering, over and over. “I can’t help you”. 

Hermione took a deep breath to calm herself down. It was doing her no good to scream and cry like she was doing. 

“Theodore”, she said, much more calmly. “Is Tom making you do this?”

The boy's eyes went wide and he frantically nodded his head. Hermione trembled, her fear was confirmed. 

“You’ve got to help me, Theodore”, she said. Her voice slightly shaking. “You can’t leave me here for him to take”. Tears were starting to form again, but she blinked them away. “Please”.

Theo stared at her. The Gryffindor lioness that was one of the bravest and strongest of her house had been a crying wreck in front of him just minutes before. He could see in her eyes how much Tom terrified her. There was no way he could hand her over. He reached over to untie her. 

“I’d stop that right now if I were you, Theodore”.

Theo gulped and turned to see that Blaise had entered the room again after making sure the coast outside was clear. 

“It’s a good thing I came back when I did”, Blaise said, glaring at Theo. “Do you realize what you almost did? Do you realize what he would do to us if he found out?” He hissed, causing Theo to whimper and cower away. 

Blaise turned to Hermione and smirked at her. 

“Not so high and mighty now are you, little Miss Perfect?” He said. 

“Blaise…” Theo said in a warning voice. 

Blaise ignored him. 

“You know, I never understood why Tom has always been so obsessed with you”, He said. “You wouldn’t believe the lengths he’d go to make sure you're always watched by one of us. If he had more time on his hands he’d probably make a schedule”. He laughed. Hermione didn’t find any of this funny. 

“I started to realize this year though”, Blaise continued, coming closer and closer to the bound girl. “That Tom has seen something that I hadn’t before. I guess he’d know that you’d turn from a little ugly duckling into something...else”. 

He reached out a hand and touched her knee. He then slowly raised his hand to the base of her skirt, feeling her soft creamy leg as he did so. 

“Blaise”, Theo said again, this one more forceful. 

Blaise took his hand away and Hermione was able to breathe again. 

“I wasn’t going to do anything to her”, he said to the shorter boy. “I don’t have a death wish. I was just letting her know that I noticed how she had changed”. He winked at her and Hermione shivered. “If Tom hadn’t already set his claim on you”, Blaise smirked. “I would probably have gone out and tasted a sample”. He licked his lips. “I can assure you that you would have enjoyed your time with me, Cara”.

A portrait suddenly flung open and the object of Hermione’s nightmares stepped into view. He was followed by a mass of masked figures cloaked in black, but Hermione didn’t notice them. All of her attention was in Tom. She pulled against the ropes that held her spread open to no avail and she could feel herself start to panic again. 

Tom strode over to her immediately, his eyes wide as he stared at her all tied up, as if on a platter for him. 

“My darling”, he whispered, cupping her cheek. “I’m finally here”. 

Tom was completely overwhelmed when he saw her. He could smell her sweet scent again and it was intoxicating. He just had to be near her. To touch her. And that’s what he did. Oh, he wanted so much to take her then and there, but he could see the terror in her eyes and knew that it wasn’t the time. He wanted her to be a willing participant for their first of many times. He also didn’t want his followers to see her unclothed. That privilege was reserved for him and only him. He wished that he had waited to come to her when she wasn’t so scared and apprehensive, but he couldn’t help himself. They had been apart for too long. 

“Take her to the manor” he ordered to someone that she couldn’t see. He raised his wand and Hermione was consumed by darkness. 

\----------------------------------------------------------

Harry and Ron returned to the castle, complaining loudly about the results of the Quidditch match they just came back from. Slytherin had acted so strangely. Whenever either seeker came close to catching the snitch, a member of the Slytherin team got in their way so that they wouldn’t be able to catch it. It wouldn’t have been that out of the ordinary if they just did this to Cho Chang, the seeker for Ravenclaw, but they did it to Malfoy as well. Because of this, the match lasted much longer than Quidditch matches usually do. Harry couldn’t help but think that Slytherin was planning something sinister. 

Screams suddenly came from the front of the crowd. Harry and Ron looked at each other before rushing to where the chaos was happening. When they were able to see the cause of the commotion, they froze. Masked death eaters were in the entryway pointing their wands at the terrified crowd. 

Harry immediately reached for his wand, but Ron grabbed his hand to stop him from getting it and shook his head. Harry nodded in understanding. There were too many people. Someone could get hurt if he started firing spells. 

The death eaters started ushering the giant crowd into the great hall where everyone who hadn’t attended the match was already sitting. Harry could see Hannah Abbott, who had been in the hospital wing for the past few days due to a very persistent cold, sniffling and trembling at the Hufflepuff table. Neville had joined Harry and Ron’s place in the crowd and was staring at Hannah sadly. Harry could tell that he wanted to go and comfort her. He grabbed on to Neville’s sleeve so that he wouldn’t go over to her. 

They sat at the Gryffindor table, waiting for the death eaters to say or do something. They just stood all around the hall like statues. The teachers glared at them but didn’t want to put the students in danger by attacking the masked figures. 

Ron suddenly started tugging on Harry’s sleeve. The redhead had been searching up and down the table for a few minutes now and had become panicked when he didn’t see what he was looking for. 

“Hermione isn’t here”, he whispered to Harry with wide eyes. 

Harry immediately looked around as well, hoping that his friend was wrong. But he wasn’t. Hermione was nowhere to be found. Harry had a really bad feeling about her absence, which was intensified when the doors to the great hall opened again and Tom Riddle walked through. 

Gasps sounded throughout the hall. While most didn’t know why Tom had been forced out of the school, they knew that aurors had come to collect him and failed to do so. Harry could see McGonagall glare at the former student with more intensity and anger than he had ever seen before. If Tom had noticed her, he didn’t appear to be affected by her terrifying glare. He walked down the center of the tables until he reached the high table. 

When Harry saw the smug grin that was painted on his face as he turned to face the inhabitants of the school, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that Riddle was behind Hermione’s disappearance. By the look on Ron’s face, the freckled boy had come to this conclusion as well. His face was so red and he was clenching his fists so hard that Harry was afraid he would pop. 

“It is wonderful to be back here”, Tom said, grinning at the scared and angry faces below him. “I just thought you all should know that these attacks on muggles and mudbloods are my doing. In time, I will be the ruler of the wizarding world and complete the task that my ancestor, Salazar Slytherin, was unable to do”. 

His confession to being the Heir of Slytherin brought about much confusion in the student body as well as some crying. 

“I will be doing this under a different name. From this day forward, my name to you all is Lord Voldemort”. 

Riddle turned his eyes on Harry and the green-eyed boy felt a shiver run down his spine. Before Riddle could say or do anything to him, however, the older boy clutched his left forearm. He scowled and started back towards the doors. 

“Remember the name of Lord Voldemort, Hogwarts”, he addressed the room one last time before leaving with his death eaters in tow. 

Everyone took deep breaths of relief. Neville jumped up from the table and ran over to Hannah, who was looking incredibly distraught. Ginny, who was sitting beside Harry, reached for his hand and he squeezed it. The professors were going around the hall, comforting devastated first and second years. The doors opened again and Dumbledore strode purposefully into the great hall. McGonagall rushed up to him and quickly told him what had happened. Dumbledore nodded, looking very grim. 

Harry and Ron ran over to the old headmaster before he could leave and contact the ministry. 

“Riddle’s done something with Hermione!” Ron gasped. “You’ve got to do something! Quick!”

Dumbledore just looked sadly at the two boys. 

“Miss Granger has been taken by Mr. Riddle”. 

Harry felt his stomach drop. He couldn’t breathe. This couldn’t be happening. One look at Ron’s face showed that he was thinking the same thing. He turned so pale that his freckles stood out like ink on paper. 

Their best friend was in the possession of the devil, and there was nothing any of them could do to save her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed that! I won’t be able to update again until Monday, so I hope you like the cliffhanger! 😉


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My schedule cleared up, so now you guys don't have to wait till Monday for another chapter! I hope you guys enjoy it! Please let me know what you think!
> 
> I do not own Harry Potter, all rights belong to J. K. Rowling

March 1, 1997

 

Hermione groaned. Her eyes felt glued shut. The bed she was laying in was extremely comfortable. She moved her arms to feel the sheets covering her. They were silk. The Hogwarts beds weren’t silk. She forced her eyes open to see a room that was completely unfamiliar to her. The walls were an emerald green and the bed was a black four-poster that was so big she couldn’t reach the edge when she stretched out her arms. There was a large window to her left and the light that shone in reflected off of the silver sheets wrapped around her. She was definitely not in Hogwarts. 

The events of the previous evening all came back to her. Hermione started to hyperventilate. She sat up in the bed and held her head in her hand. She couldn’t afford to panic. She had to keep herself together. She swung her legs around the bed to stand up. She ran out the door and into the hallway. 

The minute she stepped out, she felt a breeze and immediately started shivering. She looked down and realized in horror that she was wearing a white lacy nightie. Someone must have changed her in her sleep. She prayed that it wasn’t Tom. 

She slowly crept through the halls, looking for a way out. The nightie she was wearing only went down to her mid-thigh, so she felt very uncomfortable walking around in it. She would never wear anything so revealing. Her nipples were pebbled and pointed due to the cold air in the hallway and they poked through her very thin layer of covering. She wished she was wearing a bra but was thankful that she at least still had her knickers on. 

A squeak came from her left and she turned to see a tiny figure huddled by the wall. It was a house elf with large bat-like ears and tennis ball-sized green eyes. His hands were ringing the pillowcase he was wearing. 

“Miss shouldn’t be out and about”, he was saying, obviously terrified. “Miss should be in her room. Dobby was told to keep Miss in her room”. 

An overwhelming amount of pity and sympathy ran through Hermione for the poor creature. She hated that he might be punished for her trying to escape, but she couldn’t stay there. Even so, she also couldn’t leave little Dobby there so scared. 

“Hello. Dobby is it? My name’s Hermione”, she said softly, trying her best not to alert the occupants of the house, whoever they may be, to her location. “I’m really very sorry, but I can’t stay in the room”.

She wasn’t able to say anything more due to Dobby’s loud cry. 

“Dobby never should have left Miss alone. Dobby should have never left her room. Bad Dobby. Bad Dobby. Bad Dobby!”

The more Dobby spoke, the louder he became. Hermione tried desperately to shush him, but it was like she wasn’t even there. Dobby started hitting his head hard on an old wooden armoire that was in the hallway, making a loud clunking noise. Hermione grabbed the elf around the middle and tried to wrestle him away from the cabinet so he wouldn’t hurt himself. 

“What is the meaning of this, Dobby?” came a harsh voice. “You were supposed to keep Miss Granger in her room”.

Hermione and the now very dizzy Dobby turned to see Tom Riddle himself standing at the end of the hallway looking very angry. Hermione would have been more afraid were it not for Dobby, who started wringing his hands and whimpering again. She placed herself between Riddle and the elf. 

“It was my fault”, she said, standing up straight and tall as if to prove that she had more confidence than she had. “Don’t punish Dobby for something I did”. 

Tom shifted his gaze to her. At once, all malice was gone from his face and a soft smile was in its place. It was quite alarming how quickly he changed moods. 

“Of course my love. Anything for you”, he purred. 

Hermione shivered and pulled down more on her nightie, trying desperately to cover more of herself with the thin material. Tom noticed this, and his eyes shifted to stare at her thighs. His eyes gleamed. He liked what he saw. 

“Prepare the roast chicken for us, Dobby”, he ordered, not straying his gaze from Hermione. “It’s Miss Granger’s favorite”. 

The elf was quick to oblige, popping out of sight with a loud ‘crack!’ faster than Hermione could blink. She clenched her fists, all feeling of bravery diminishing considerably. Tom stepped closer to her and she reflexively stepped backward, away from him. He frowned and strode quickly over to her before she could make another move. She gulped and stared up at his towering figure. He grabbed her hand and forced her to link it through his elbow before leading her down the corridor. 

Hermione grimaced and tried to pry her hand away, but he had it tucked in an iron grip. They way he was holding her made them look like a couple out for a stroll. She did not like that. 

“Where are you taking me?” she asked.

“To dinner”, he replied smoothly. “You haven’t had anything to eat since you arrived. You must be famished”.

Hermione’s stomach grumbled and she realized that she was, indeed, quite hungry. She had just been too surprised and scared to become aware of the fact sooner. 

“If we are to be having dinner, may I please wear some proper clothes?” she asked, trying not to get him to fulfill her request. 

He didn’t answer her at first, just stared down at her. He honestly didn’t want to do as she asked. He adored how she looked in the nightie. From where he was standing, he had the perfect view of her breasts. The tops of them were not covered by the lacy thing he had her put in, and he wanted nothing more than to touch the milky white globes. He sighed. He wanted her to warm up to him, and he would have to submit to her just a little to make sure that happened. With a wave of his wand, a silk green dressing gown floated down the corridor towards them. He plucked it out of the air, regretfully let go of Hermione, and proceeded to clothe her with the item. 

Hermione stroked the dressing gown once Tom had put it on her. It was the same material as her sheets, and she had to admit it was very comfortable. She also felt better wearing something that covered her more. Tom placed her hand in the crook of his elbow again, and they continued until they reached the dining room. 

It was bigger than any dining room Hermione had ever seen in a house. The enormous table looked as though it could sit at least fifty people. Tom led her over to a seat near the head of the table and pulled out the chair so she could sit. Once she had done so, he moved around the table and sat down in the seat directly in front of her. 

“Dobby!” Tom called. 

The elf appeared from a door of to the side of the room that Hermione guessed led to the kitchens. He had a large roasted chicken on a platter. The smell of it made Hermione’s mouth water. Dobby sat the chicken down in between Hermione and Tom and proceeded to cut up pieces for the pair of them. No one said a word while the elf cut the food. Tom just stared at Hermione and, not wanting to be a coward, Hermione returned his gaze. 

Once Dobby was finished, he quickly scurried back to the door from which he came. Tom didn’t take any notice of the elf, which left Hermione feeling quite sour. 

“Thank you Dobby”, she called over to him. 

Dobby stopped in his tracks and stared at her with his wide tennis ball eyes. He looked shocked. He probably never received thanks for anything he had done in his life before, Hermione sadly realized. 

“I don’t think I will ever understand your compassion for even the most unworthy and lowly of things”, Tom said, disbelieving. “I have to say, it is admirable though”. 

“He is more worthy of my compassion than you ever will be”, Hermione snapped, anger boiling in her veins. She wanted nothing more than to slap Riddle across the face and was pleased to see that her words seemed to do just the trick. 

Tom just frowned at her but said nothing to defend himself. 

“Why me?”, she asked. “Why did you take me?”

“I cannot lie to you, Hermione”, he said. “You intrigue me. You have the mind and power that I have only seen in a few select people, myself being one of those”.

“But I’m a muggleborn”, Hermione interrupted. “I thought you hated everyone like me”.

“Oh I do”, Tom said, seriously. “I despise muggles and muggleborns alike. I find them worthless and a menace to us wizards”.

“Then why…?”

“Because you are you, Hermione”, he implored. “You are different than the rest of them. I already told you of how exceptional your mind is, but you are so much more than that. You have a fire about you that burns my soul whenever I think about you. You are intoxicating”. 

Hermione trembled, but she couldn’t tell if it was with rage at what he was saying about muggleborns and muggles or if it was with fear because of how obsessed he seemed to be with her. 

“You are worth more than the dirt that plagues your blood”, he continued. “You should have been born a pureblood, my love”.

“I am not your love!” she snapped. Her shaking was definitely due to her rage now. Tom paused for a moment at her outburst, but he was quick to speak again. 

“Surely you do not mean that you belong to that oaf, Weasley?” Tom asked, looking very angry and annoyed. “He doesn’t shine a candle to your power and greatness. You deserve more than him. You must understand that you are mine”.

“No. Don’t you dare say such things about Ron. He is ten times the man you are. I am with him because I care for him and he cares for me. We respect each other. He is one of my best friends and has always stood by my side no matter what. We may have had our disagreements and fights, but I know that he will never ever do anything even close to the evil that you have done”. Hermione’s face was red. The more she spoke, the more livid Tom seemed to get. She liked that. 

“And just because I chose him”, she continued. “Does not mean that I belong to him. I am not yours or Ron’s ar anybody’s. I belong to no one besides me…”

Tom slammed his hand on the table, interrupting her tirade and making her jump. 

“That is where you are wrong, my dear”, he said. “You are mine. Your mind, body, everything belongs to me, and you will obey me. You will love your place by my side as my dark lady”.

“If you know anything about me, then you know I will never join you”, she said, clenching her fists and glaring at him. 

“Oh I think you will”, he said, suddenly changing his tone to a more pleasant one. The shift was jarring and Hermione blinked in confusion. He walked around the table so he was standing in front of her. “I know how your body responds to mine”, he whispered. 

He pointed her wand at her temple, and all the memories that he had taken away from her came rushing back in. Every single time that he had cornered her and accosted her was in her head again. One he had returned everything to her, he stepped back. 

Hermione gasped. Her mind was reeling. She couldn’t process this information. She put her head in her hands, shaking. She wanted to throw up. She couldn’t believe what Tom had done to her, that he had accosted her and touched her. They didn’t appear to be as intense as her dreams had been, but she now had a feeling Tom had been causing those in some way. 

“The feeling you felt when I touched you”, he breathed, stroking her severely trembling arm. “Is what makes me know that you will change your tune, my dear”. 

\-----------------------------------------------

Weeks had passed without much happening. Hermione kept to herself as much as she could, staying in her room with only Dobby for company. She found that he was very pleasant and sweet when he wasn’t punishing himself for doing something wrong. She was still forced to eat all of her meals with Tom in the dining hall, but she made an effort not to pay attention to him. He didn’t do anything about it, which made her a little unnerved. He seemed to be waiting for her to change her mind before making a move. 

Even though they were the only two to eat in the dining room, the house contained many other people. Most of which only stayed for short periods of time, but there were two that were there more than the others. Hermione learned that these were Draco’s parents and that Tom had taken up residence in their house. Mrs. Malfoy never really said much to her, but she could plainly see the disdain that Mr. Malfoy had for her written clearly on his face. She could see where Draco had gotten the mindset that he had kept for their first few years at Hogwarts. 

The other occupants never spoke to her, and she ignored them. They were all Tom’s loyal followers and she wanted nothing to do with them. There were many, like Mr. Malfoy, that had really negative opinions of her, but no one dared do anything whilst Tom was around. 

Tom wasn’t always around though. He went out often to cause some havoc amongst the muggles or was tucked away in his study with his right-hand man, a greasy man named Snape, discussing plans for the future. 

It was on one such occasion where Tom was out of the house when Hermione was finally confronted by one of the death eaters. She was reading in her room (the only positive thing about the manor was it’s incredibly high number of books) when a tall pale man with a twisted face and dark hair entered. Hermione closed the book and stood up when he closed the door and locked it. He turned on her, a sadistic grin on his face. She backed away from him until she hit the wall behind her. 

The man stood in front of her. She stared up at him, determined not to let her fear show. 

“Hello little mudblood”, he purred. “You are quite delicious, aren’t you?” he touched her arm, then slid his hand up it until he was stroking her cheek. 

“So smooth. I wonder if you taste as sweet as you look”. He yanked her chin up harshly and attacked her mouth with his. 

Hermione immediately tried to fight back against him, but he was too big for her to cause any damage. He picked her up and threw her on the bed. With a wave of his wand, ropes appeared around her wrists and ankles, pulling them towards the four corners of the bed. She twisted and yanked on her binds, but she only managed to cut them into her skin. She grimaced in pain and screamed at the top of her lungs for somebody, anybody, to help her. 

The man waved his wand again and she was silenced, unable to make a sound. 

“I wish I could hear you scream”, he was muttering as he untied the ribbon on her dressing gown. “But we can’t have the dark lord finding out about this, now can we?”

He spread apart the gown so that he had a full view of the ridiculously small nightie that she was forced to wear. Her heaving chest was making her breasts strain against the thin material, and her knickers could be clearly seen due to how spread apart she was. 

Silent tears poured down Hermione’s face as she fought to escape her restraints. The man just laughed at her futile attempts. Before he could do anything more to her, however, the door to her room was blasted off its hinges and the man was sent flying away from her. 

Tom was standing in the doorway, more livid than he had ever been in his life. He stalked into the room, all of his attention on the man crawling away from him. The man tried to apologize and defend himself to Tom, but he was fighting a losing battle. 

Tom lifted his wand and said, “Sectumsempra!” 

Deep gashes formed all over the man’s body. He desperately tried applying pressure to them, but there were too many wounds. He gurgled and coughed up blood. Hermione screamed, but because of the silencing spell still in place, she was unheard. 

“I am incredibly disappointed in you, Dolohov”, Tom said as the man continued to bleed out. “You were showing me that you had what it took to be a member of my inner circle”. 

He stood there and watched as the man slowly bled to death. When Dolohov didn’t move anymore in his pile of blood, Tom finally turned to Hermione. He removed her bonds just in time for her to vomit over the side of the bed. She covered her face with her hands and sobbed silently until Tom gave her her voice back, after which her cries became audible. 

She curled up into a ball. She could feel Tom rubbing her back, but she couldn’t find the strength to push him away. She was traumatized by her attack, that was for sure, but even that horror paled in comparison to what she felt when she watched Tom brutally murder the man in front of her. 

“You are mine, my love”, Tom whispered, oblivious to how he was the one she truly feared. “And I will protect you. No one will ever hurt you again. You are mine”.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all again for your kind words! I am glad you seem to be enjoying where the story is headed. Let me know what you think of this chapter!
> 
> J. K. Rowling owns Harry Potter

May 1997

 

“Stupefy!” 

“Expelliarmus!” 

“Reducto!” 

Spells of all sorts were being cast around the room. Students from every house were gathered in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. One half of the room was dedicated to dueling practice, the other was dedicated to practicing different spells. 

Right after Riddle’s attack on the school, Harry and Ron had gone to Professor Lupin to talk about teaching them to fight. They had a feeling a war was going to happen, and they wanted to do everything they could to help win it and to save their best friend. Lupin was hesitant at first, but the boys managed to convince him to open a club for anyone who wished to learn to duel and how to perform other fighting spells. 

It was immediately clear that Harry was incredibly proficient in defensive magic. He easily defeated anyone that opposed him in a duel and he mastered all the spells right away. DADA had always been his best class (he even got an O for the DADA O.W.L) but this was the first time anyone really saw how good he was. Because of this, Lupin asked Harry to be his assistant for the club. 

Harry had been helping Neville one-on-one for the past few weeks, and he was proud to say that his friend had gotten pretty good. He had even managed to disarm Dean in a duel, and Harry hypothesized that he would become a formidable opponent. More people showed up to the club than they were expecting to. People from all houses were there, including a couple of Slytherins that were going due to their dislike of Riddle. 

Harry looked across the room once he finished helping Colin Creevey with some arm motions, and smiled at Ginny, who was very talented with defensive magic as well. She had just reduced a table to ashes with a reducto curse and turned around excitedly to see if he was watching. The two of them had gotten closer since the club started. Harry found himself getting more and more nervous around the younger girl. He found that he really wanted to kiss her, but he didn’t know when would be a good time to do so. He shook his head to clear it. He couldn’t afford to become unfocused, not even for Ginny. 

Ron hadn’t lost focus for even minute ever since the attack on Hogwarts. He hadn’t even cracked a smile since then. All that mattered to him was getting Hermione back safe and sound. He dedicated himself to dueling and perfecting defensive magic more than he ever did for any other subject. He rarely talked to anyone anymore, and when he wasn’t in the defense club, he was in the library, studying spells that could be useful in the oncoming conflict. 

Harry saw Parvati and Lavender engaged in a fierce duel with Dean and Seamus, taking up most of the room. Harry didn’t think the girls cared for anything other than Divination and their looks, but they were surprisingly good duelers. He shivered when Parvati sent a particularly nasty hex at Seamus. He definitely did not want to get on either of their bad sides. 

Overall, everyone was improving. Everyone, that is, except for Hannah Abbott. The poor girl was not a dueler, and though she tried her hardest, she just wasn’t getting the hang of it. Harry felt sorry for the blonde girl. Hannah was one of the gentlest souls he knew, so dueling would be completely out of nature for her. He wished that she would have an easier time with it so she wouldn’t get upset. 

At that moment, Hannah was sitting away from everyone else, watching Neville beat her best friend Ernie MacMillan in a duel with a big smile on his face. She tried to offer him a smile of congratulations when he beamed at her, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. 

Before Harry could go over to her, a girl with blonde hair as platinum as Malfoy’s reached her first. It was Luna Lovegood from Ravenclaw house. Harry didn’t know much about Luna other than she was in Ginny’s year and a bit odd. She was always going on about creatures that Harry had never heard of before and wore the strangest of clothes, including radish earrings. She was pretty good at defensive magic, though, and mastered the Patronus charm faster than anyone else other than Harry. 

After a few minutes of comforting Hannah, Luna skipped over to Harry, with a pleasant smile on her face. 

“Hannah doesn’t really like dueling”, she said in a dazed voice. “But she still wants to help. I was thinking that maybe she could use her skills elsewhere, where they would be better suited”. 

Harry blinked. That was the most Luna had gone without talking about crumple-horned snorkacks. 

“Er..of course”, he said. He waved Hannah over. Neville saw this and followed her. 

“What’s going on?” Neville asked. 

“We’re trying to figure out what would be better for Hannah than dueling”, Luna said dreamily. 

Neville looked at Luna and blinked. Harry had noticed something about the two of them over the past couple of months. Though they had only met recently, the two talked like old friends. Harry wondered if something was going on between them. They seemed pretty close, but Neville was with Hannah, so he quickly dismissed the thought. 

“I didn’t know you didn’t like dueling, Hannah”, Neville said, upset that he hadn’t noticed her distress. 

“I wish I did, but I’m just hopeless at it”, she sighed. 

Neville thought for a moment before brightening. 

“Healing!” he exclaimed. “You’ve always been fantastic at Herbology, Hannah. You could go into healing. I’ve talked with Madam Pomfrey about it and they’re quite similar, you know”.

“I’ve never thought of healing before”, Hannah said, pursing her lips as she thought about it. “But I like the sound of it”. 

Neville smiled at the smile that appeared on her face, as did Luna. 

“I’ll take you to see Madam Pomfrey”, the Ravenclaw said happily. 

After they made their goodbyes to Harry and Neville, the two girls quickly left the room. 

“Luna’s nice”, Harry remarked. 

“Yeah. She is”, Neville said distractedly, looking at the door that the girls just exited through. Harry studied his friend. Maybe there was something happening. 

\------------------------------------------------------

June 1997

 

The past couple of months had been very busy ones for Tom. He had been calling meeting after meeting for his many death eaters. They wanted to take over the ministry, and that required lots of planning as well as motivational speaking on his part. Because of him being away so often, he hadn’t gotten to spend as much time with Hermione as he would have liked to. They still hadn’t had sex, which he was getting annoyed by. When would she finally submit to him? Her holding out on him was getting excruciatingly tiresome. 

There was also the issue of what to do with the items he wanted to make into horcruxes. He had hidden the ring that he had already made into a horcrux, but he wasn’t sure what to do with the items that weren’t yet horcruxes. After much consideration, he decided to keep the diadem in the Room of Hidden Things at Hogwarts, and the cup in the Malfoy’s vault at Gringotts. 

He had something special planned for the locket. A long time ago, while he was still a child at the orphanage and hadn’t gone to Hogwarts yet, he and the rest of the children at Wool’s were taken to the seaside for a holiday. While there, Tom had found a particularly interesting cave that was near impossible to get to without magic. 

Now he was standing at the entrance to the cave once again, this time with a terribly frightened Dobby at his heels. Tom waved his wand, muttering spells that would prevent anyone from apparating to or inside of the cave. Once he was satisfied, he and the elf entered the cave. Another door was there, blocking the rest of the way into the cave. Tom waved his wand over it and then turned to Dobby. The elf trembled. Tom grabbed the elf’s arm and cut it with a small dagger. The elf howled in pain, but Tom didn’t care. Once he had procured enough blood, he pressed it against the door, which immediately opened for them. 

Tom and Dobby were greeted with a large black lake that was tinted a dark green. Tom grinned. He was proud of his work on the lake. A few days ago, he had brought all of the muggles and mudbloods that he had slain, turned them into inferi (dead bodies bewitched to do a Dark wizard’s bidding), and brought them to the lake. If anyone were to try to summon the locket to them or tamper with the lake water, the inferi would attack and kill them. 

Tom reached out and grasped the invisible boat he had hidden on the water. He and Dobby entered the boat and sailed across the lake until they reached the small island in the middle. On the island was a basin filled with a glowing emerald potion that could not be touched, vanished, transfigured, charmed, or made to change its nature in any way. The only way to get rid of the potion was to drink it, and while doing so would not kill the drinker, it would leave them in a state of supreme pain, delirious fear and extreme thirst. The locket was already submerged in the potion. 

Tom conjured a goblet out of thin air, scooped up some of the potion, and handed the goblet to the terrified Dobby. Dobby took it with shaking hands and obediently drank the potion. The effects were immediate. The elf started crying in pain and fear, begging desperately for Tom to kill him. Tom did not listen to the elf’s pleas. He instead just refilled the goblet and force-fed its contents to the poor creature until the basin was empty of all things except the locket. 

Tom nodded, happy that all of his defenses seemed to be in place so far. As he refilled the potion, he watched Dobby crawl towards the lake, desperate for some water. The moment his tiny hand touched the black surface and inferious grabbed it and pulled him under the surface. Tom smiled. There would be no way anyone could possibly retrieve the locket and survive. 

\---------------------------------------------------------

Hermione had been trapped in the manor for three months. She couldn’t believe it had been that long. She wondered how Ron and Harry and all of her other friends were doing. She wondered how her parents were doing with her being gone. She missed them all so much. She thankfully had Dobby to keep her company, but she hadn’t seen him in a while. He had left with Tom a few days ago and never came back. She hoped that he was okay. She would be devastated if something had happened to the poor elf. 

She had always been allowed to roam around the manor, but only did so when Tom wasn’t there. She did not want to risk seeing him more than she absolutely had to. Tom’s followers were still there, but no one approached her or talked to her. She bet that Tom had told them all about Dolohov, and had warned them to stay away from her. That didn’t stop them from glaring at her and muttering rude things under their breathes whenever she passed. While they may all support Tom, she could tell it was hard for the pure-blooded bigots to accept their Dark Lord’s interest in a muggleborn like her. 

There was one person other than Tom and the house elves, however, that didn’t treat her like complete dirt. Draco’s mother Narcissa Malfoy obviously wasn’t fond of her, but the older woman didn’t glare or jeer at her as all of Tom’s other followers did. Hermione wondered why. Did Draco have anything to do with his mother’s behavior? She found that she wished that Draco was there. He would definitely help her. 

One day, she decided to approach Narcissa. The woman was, at first, very guarded towards her and did not want to talk. After lots of pushing, Hermione was finally able to get her to open up to her. She was actually a very kind woman who was not a fan of Tom Riddle at all. Narcissa told Hermione of how Tom had tortured her sister Bellatrix and how she could never forgive him for it. She also explained that she didn’t fight her husband on accepting Tom into their home because of what she feared he would do to Draco if he got mad. Hermione could tell that Narcissa was desperately worried for her son, and she felt extremely sorry for the older woman. 

Narcissa went on to say that she was worried for Hermione too. Hermione had to agree with her. She was also worried for herself. 

She was right to worry, because when Tom came back, Hermione could tell that he was different, and not in a good way. There was something in his eyes that was not there before. Something maniacal. Something truly evil. He looked at her hungrily as he entered her room. Hermione was reminded of Dolohov, and she tried to put as much distance as she could between her and Tom. 

Tom closed the gap between them in only a few seconds, though. He reached up and stroked her cheek. Hermione was breathing heavily, her chest heaving. She really wished that Tom had given her other clothes to wear than lingerie and dressing gowns because she could feel way more of him than was comfortable when he pressed himself up against her. 

“I can’t take it anymore, my love”, he groaned, keeping her in place with his arms on either side of her face. She looked up at him and gulped. “I must have you now. I can’t wait any longer”.

He grabbed her face and started kissing her hungrily. She tried to fight against him, but he was too strong. There was no way she was getting away from him unless he wanted her to. He reached down with one hand and untied her dressing gown. He pushed it off her shoulders, despite her protests, leaving her in one of the tiny lacy nighties he had left for her. 

He reached behind her, grabbed her bottom, and picked her up in his arms. He forced her legs around his waist, pushed her back against the wall, and started rubbing against her. Hermione gasped, the unwanted fire was coming back, no matter how much she was wishing it wouldn’t. She hit him with her fists and kicked him as much as she was able to, but he held her firmly in place. 

Before she knew it, he had thrown her onto her bed. She tried to crawl away from him, but he grabbed her by the ankle, flipped her over onto her back, and dragged her back towards him. He positioned himself over her, with his knees on either side of her thighs, to keep her in place. He used one hand to hold both of hers above her head. She noticed that he had taken his shirt off. 

She bucked against him to try to push him off, but that just seemed to make him more excited. She opened her mouth and screamed at the top of her lungs for help, even though she was sure no one would come to her aid. Tom slapped her across the face, and she was stunned into silence. 

“I have had enough of your disobedience, Hermione”, he snarled at her. “I have given you more than enough time to submit to me willingly, but you constantly refuse me”. Hermione started to cry, but he didn’t appear to notice. “You are mine”, he insisted, shaking her arms a little to get his point across. “And you will do as I say. You will give yourself to me. You will give me what is rightfully mine”.

He then used his free hand to rip her nightie in half. Hermione sobbed. She couldn’t believe this was happening. She prayed to whoever was listening to please help her, but no assistance came. Tom was feeling her bare breasts, rubbing and pinching her nipples. The fire within her was still there, but it was almost completely covered by her fear. Tom reached to undo his belt and Hermione’s prayers were finally answered. 

Her door flung open, and Draco Malfoy stood in the opening, eyes wide in shock at the scene before him. Hermione couldn’t believe he was there. He must have just gotten back from school for the summer. 

“What are you doing here, Draco?” Tom snarled, squeezing Hermione’s wrists so tightly that they started to hurt. She whimpered in pain, and Draco’s eyes flicked over to her. 

“Can’t you see that I’m busy?” Tom continued, flicking one of Hermione’s nipples, eliciting a gasp from her. Draco reddened as he looked at her bare chest, and forced his eyes away quickly. 

“Snape needs to see you”, Draco said with all the force he could muster. “He said that something went wrong with the plan to imperious the minister”.

“Tell Severus that I will be with him when I am finished”, Tom said, annoyed as he started to rub Hermione’s crotch through her panties. The poor girl hiccuped and cried softly. Draco glanced at her again and then turned his gaze back to Tom. 

“He says that it can’t wait. He needs you now”. 

For a moment, it looked as though Tom was going to hex Draco. Finally, he sighed heavily and rolled off of Hermione. He kissed her and walked out the door. 

Draco watched him walk down the hall, and once he was sure the Dark Lord was completely gone, he ran over to Hermione, who was curled up on her side, crying. Draco grabbed a sheet and quickly wrapped her in it. She trembled and leaned into him. He froze, unsure of what to do, before hesitantly wrapping his arms around her. They stayed there for a while she cried in his arms. Draco found that he like holding her, he just wished it was under better circumstances. 

“He almost...he almost…” Hermione whimpered. 

“I know”, Draco said, rubbing her back soothingly to calm her down. “You’re okay now though, I’ve got you”.

Hermione sighed and started to relax. Before long, she was asleep. Draco looked down at her sleeping face. She had the largest bags under her eyes that he had ever seen. She looked exhausted, even asleep. He remembered how terrified she had looked when he had burst into her room. He remembered how her terrified scream for help was the first thing that greeted him when he got home. 

As he rubbed her back, he noticed that she was incredibly thin. Much thinner than she was when he had last seen her. She was probably too scared out of her mind to eat. He couldn’t imagine what she had to go through every day with the devil himself prowling around her. 

Draco decided right then and there that Tom Riddle was going down, and that he would do absolutely anything to make sure that the tiny witch in his arms made it out safe and sound.


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so excited that you all are liking the story so far! You have all been so kind and wonderful and I really appreciate your comments. 
> 
> J. K. Rowling owns the rights to Harry Potter

November 1997

 

Ever since Draco came back from school for the summer, he and Hermione had been working together to try to take Tom down. They had a little progress, but not much luck overall. Hermione had told him of horcruxes early on in their team up and he was just as horrified and disgusted as she had been when she first found out. 

When September rolled around, Hermione was worried that Draco would have to go back to Hogwarts. She liked having him around. It was nice to have someone that she trusted around (she still could not believe that Draco Malfoy turned into a person she could trust) and it was because of him that she wasn’t forced to have sex with Tom yet. Whenever Tom was about to take her, either Draco or another death eater that he sent to the room would barge in and call Tom away. Hermione could tell that Tom was getting incredibly annoyed, and she found that she enjoyed that. It also helped that he was away from her even more now. Though something in the back of Hermione’s head told her that this couldn’t be good and that he was surely up to something, she was thankful for the reprieve from her captor. 

Thankfully, Narcissa didn’t want Draco going back to school and kept him home. She insisted that as times were getting more dangerous, she wanted her son close to her, but Hermione had a feeling that Narcissa was also keeping Draco here for the younger girl’s sake. Hermione noticed that Narcissa was often one of the people that stepped in to prevent Tom from raping her. 

“So”, Hermione was saying to Draco one day. They were on the floor in her room talking. She was wrapped up in her sheets because Tom had still not given her proper clothes, a fact that was she was getting increasingly annoyed by. 

“We know that Tom has the cup in your parents Gringotts vault, and we know that he has hidden the diadem at Hogwarts”.

Draco nodded. He had been keeping in touch with Theo and found that Tom had hidden the diadem of Ravenclaw in the room that Theo and Blaise had taken Hermione to for Tom to abduct her from Hogwarts. Theo insisted that it was a room known only to Tom and his followers. 

Hermione had never seen the room they were speaking of before she was held captive there, and therefore didn’t know anything about it. Draco agreed that he had never heard of the room before then either and asked Theo for more information on it. Hermione was thankful that Theo seemed to like Draco more than Tom. She felt bad for him because she could tell how terrified he was of the Dark Lord. Perhaps he thought that Draco could protect him if he helped him. 

Theo got back to them quickly, saying that the room could appear to be anything that you wished it to. Theo said that countless student happened across the room accidentally and that they all used it for different reasons. Tom apparently thought of ‘a room to hide something’ when he went to it. 

Hermione and Draco thanked Theo considerably for the information he had given. She hoped that Tom wouldn’t catch on to what Theo was doing. She didn’t know if she would be able to stand to hear of Tom’s wrath on the boy. 

“All that leaves”, Hermione continued. “Is the locket and his ring”. 

“Are you sure that he made more horcruxes?” Draco asked.

“Oh I’m sure”, Hermione replied. “Dumbledore destroyed the one he made, remember? He definitely made at least one more for the moment. We just don’t know which one, so we have to find them all”.

“Yes yes”, Draco said, frowning. “But didn’t you say you have to rip out a part of your soul to create a horcrux? Wouldn’t that be extremely dangerous for him if he did that again and again?”

“Yes, it would”, Hermione agreed, pondering Draco’s words. “But I am positive he made more or at least has plans to. He’s obsessed with power, and horcruxes give him that. They also prevent him from dying, which would be extremely helpful for him in conquering the wizarding world”.

Draco nodded. “You have a point”, he said. 

“I know I do”, she grinned at him. 

They sat in silence for a while. 

“What do you think he’s gonna do next?” Draco finally asked. 

“Oh I don’t know”, Hermione said, frowning. “I’m surprised that he hasn’t tried to take over the ministry. I wonder what he’s waiting for”.

“There’s always Dumbledore”, Draco pointed out. “With Dumbledore around, he’s gonna be hesitant to do anything”.

“Yeah”, Hermione agreed. “Dumbledore sure makes him nervous. He never liked him at school, did he?”

Draco shook his head. 

“I think that Dumbledore always suspected Tom of being up to no good, he just couldn’t do anything without proof. Tom didn’t like Dumbledore’s wariness of him”. 

“So whatever he’s planning”, Hermione said, thinking out loud. “He’s gonna wait until Dumbledore’s out of the way first”.

After a few more weeks, Hermione and Draco finally found the location of the ring. Draco had been eavesdropping on a conversation Tom was having with Snape and heard that Tom kept the ring in his grandfather’s old house with many enchantments protecting it. 

“Now we know where they all are!” Draco said, happily. 

“Or at least all of the ones that we know of”, Hermione said, solemnly. “There could always be more”. 

“We’ll figure it out”, Draco said trying to be positive. He reached over and squeezed her shoulder. 

Hermione looked up at the blonde boy and couldn’t help but give him a soft smile. She didn’t know how she possibly could get through all of this without Draco. Not only had he been extremely helpful in her goal to find Tom’s horcruxes, but he had become such a wonderful friend to her as well. It was hard to believe that Draco was the same boy who had called her a mudblood all those years ago. 

\--------------------------------------------------

Mrs. Weasley did not want Ron and Ginny to go back to Hogwarts after what had happened the previous year. She wasn’t the only one. Many parents were choosing to homeschool their kids instead of sending them back. Harry could understand why. The attacks on muggles and muggleborns were getting worse and some pureblood or halfblood supporters of muggles and muggleborns were being attacked as well. These were dangerous times they were living in. 

Ron and Mrs. Weasley had had the biggest fight anyone had ever seen them have. Ron insisted on going back to school so that he could continue training to help in the war that was surely coming and Mrs. Weasley stayed firm on her opposing decision. She finally relented once James Potter took her aside and said that, with Dumbledore there, Hogwarts would be the safest place for the kids. She finally relented, to Harry’s relief. Hermione was already gone and he couldn’t imagine having to finish his education without either of his best friends. 

The summer wasn’t all doom and gloom though. Fred and George finally raised enough money to open their joke shop to the public, and it became a huge success as well as a beacon of light in the darkness. Harry also kissed Ginny for the first time. They had been sitting by a lake near her house, talking when he just did it. She wasn’t surprised by it (he could never surprise her) and happily kissed him back. He wished that Hermione was there so he could talk to her about it. 

Harry found his thoughts constantly going back to Hermione. He had no idea where she was or what she was going through. Had Tom raped her? He felt his blood boil with the thought of that being true. How could he be finding enjoyment when his best friend was most likely going through hell. Ron still hadn’t smiled since Hermione was taken. He had turned of age before they were let out for summer vacation, so he spent most of his time practicing his defensive skills. Harry was happy to say that he had gotten quite good. 

Once they returned to school, the defense club continued. Everyone was improving and Lupin was saying how impressed he was with them all. Harry was happy to see that Hannah was becoming a remarkable healer. She had been working alongside Madam Pomfrey, who remarked how skilled the blonde girl was as well. Neville was very proud of her and was constantly telling her so. Harry had to say that they were really cute together. 

Luna Lovegood continued to be a mysterious oddity to him. One second she was spouting nonsense and the next she was giving wise advice to other students that was far beyond her years. She and Neville seemed closer than ever but Harry was happy to see that Neville didn’t seem to be abandoning Hannah for the Ravenclaw. 

In addition to the defense club, Harry and Ron continued working with Dumbledore. They hadn’t been able to find where Tom had stored any of the horcruxes until one night in late November when the two of them were mysteriously called to Dumbledore’s office. He looked very grim yet hopeful at the same time. 

“I have found the location of what I think is another horcrux”, he said to them. 

“Where is it?” Harry asked, feeling excited for the first time in a long time. 

“In a cave in some cliffs by a sea in England”.

“Way to be specific”, Ron grumbled, not looking as nearly excited as Harry. Ron had stated that if the information didn’t specifically correlate to anything that could be used to rescue Hermione, then he wouldn’t celebrate it. 

“I brought you two here to ask if you would like to join me in retrieving it”, Dumbledore said. 

“Yes”, Harry immediately said. He turned to look at his best friend, but the redhead hesitated. 

“I’m gonna pass”, he said. 

“What are you talking about?” Harry asked him. 

“I mean I don’t want to go”, Ron said, his voice raising a little. “I think it would be better for me to stay here and continue training”. 

“You’re not gonna get any better if you don’t go out in the field”, Harry said. “All that training isn’t going to do you any good if you don’t have any real life experience”. 

Ron glared at Harry. He didn’t want to admit that the green-eyed boy had a point. Part of him wanted to go, but part of him told him to stay. He couldn’t explain it, but he had a feeling that he needed to be at Hogwarts that night. 

Harry had no idea what Ron was thinking, he just thought his friend was being cowardly. 

“Fine”, he said, getting annoyed. “Go on. Go train”.

Ron looked as though he wanted to say something more, but he didn’t. He turned around and walked out the door without another word. 

Harry and Dumbledore left soon after. Dumbledore had told him that no matter what he had to listen to what he told him to do. Harry agreed, neither of them aware of what that meant for him to do. 

They reached the cave without any issues. The first obstacle they had to face was a door that, according to Dumbledore, would only open if they gave blood. Harry offered his, but Dumbledore insisted that he didn’t. Harry watched in shock as his elderly headmaster cut open his arm and pressed it against the door. 

The door opened, and they were inside the cave. It was extremely dark, and the light from their wands only lit up a little bit in front of them. Before Harry even knew what was going on, Dumbledore had found a boat on the water that was previously invisible. They sailed across to the middle of the lake where a small island was. On the island was a basin that was filled with an emerald green potion and….

“The locket”, Harry breathed. 

He tried to grab the locket but was unable to. The potion seemed to be preventing him from taking it. He tried to vanish the potion, but that didn’t work either. 

“It appears”, said Dumbledore, thoughtfully. “That the only way to get rid of the potion would be to drink it”.

To Harry’s horror, he conjured a goblet and proceeded to fill it with the potion. 

“Professor no”, Harry said. “What if it poisons you?”

“I highly doubt that it will”, Dumbledore remarked. Mr. Riddle wouldn’t want to simply kill the person trying to steal his horcrux, he would want them to be punished for doing so. This potion will most likely make me feel extreme pain, Harry”. Dumbledore’s expression turned even more serious. “But you must not let me stop drinking. Whatever I say, whatever I do, keep forcing me to drink. Can I have your word that you will do that?”

Harry paused. He didn’t know if he could. After a pointed look from Dumbledore though, he said, “Yes sir”. 

Dumbledore raised the goblet to his lips, but before he took a sip he said to Harry, “Also Harry, do not touch the water. There is something dangerous lurking beneath that wouldn’t hesitate to kill us if we were to disturb it”. 

Harry nodded and Dumbledore drank. Dumbledore was right, the potion did not kill him. He was also right in saying that the potion made him feel extreme pain. Harry was forced to keep shoving the potion down his delirious headmaster’s throat. Harry’s hands shook. He wasn’t sure if he could keep doing this. Dumbledore’s cries and sobs were awful to hear. 

Finally, the basin was empty and Harry could grab the locket. He put it around his neck and helped Dumbledore back into the boat. The elderly man asked for water, but something about the cave prevented Harry’s “aguamenti” from working, and he didn't dare take any water from the lake, so he was forced to watch Dumbledore suffer some more. 

Once they made it out of the cave, Dumbledore was too weak to apparate. Harry luckily had taken apparition classes the previous year and had even gotten his apparition license, so he was able to get them back to Hogsmeade. They stumbled into the Three Broomsticks and Madam Rosmerta, the barkeep there, got Dumbledore some water. 

Harry pulled the locket off of his neck and tried to get a better look at it. There didn’t appear to be anything that made it different than a regular locket. He opened it easily. Nothing happened. 

“It’s not a horcrux, Harry”.

Harry whirled around to see his incredibly weak headmaster staring at him. Harry was happy to see that he appeared to be back in his own mind, but he was completely floored at what he had just been told. 

“What do you mean?” he asked. 

“Mr. Riddle has had yet to make the locket into a horcrux”.

“Well then what did we just do all of that for?” Harry asked, mystified. 

“He can no longer use it for one”, Dumbledore said. 

Harry shook his head. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He turned to look out the window and gasped. 

The school was clearly visible from where he was, and above it was a giant green mark of a snake coming out of the mouth of a skull.


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's another chapter! I want to have everything posted by Friday, so I'm giving you two for today. I hope you enjoy! Please let me know what you think! I love reading your comments!
> 
> J. K. Rowling owns the rights to Harry Potter.

November 1997

 

Harry and Dumbledore arrived at the astronomy tower minutes after Harry pointed the dark mark out to his headmaster. Madam Rosmerta let them borrow the brooms that she kept behind the bar, and they flew off. Although Dumbledore was doing much better, Harry could still tell that he was really weak. 

“Come on Professor. We’ve got to get you to Madam Pomfrey”, he said. 

He led the elderly man down the steps of the tower. There was nobody in sight. No students. No teachers. No death eaters. 

No Tom Riddle. 

Harry had a feeling that something very bad was happening. 

“Psst. Harry!” Somebody whispered from the shadows. 

Harry turned to see a piece of a freckled face escaping from behind a tapestry. He quickly led Dumbledore into the hidden passageway there. Many students from the defense club greeted them, including Ron, Ginny, Neville, Dean, Seamus, Lavender, Parvati, and Luna. Even Hannah was there, holding Neville’s hand tightly and shaking. 

“What’s going on?” Harry asked. 

“Tom Riddle and the death eaters invaded the school”, Ron said. “Someone must have tipped them off that Dumbledore wasn’t here”. 

“What are we gonna do?” Colin Creevey asked. 

Harry turned to look at Dumbledore. He was still very weak. 

“We’ve got to evacuate the school”, Harry said, aware that he would have to lead the students for the time being. “Where’s everyone else?”

“Riddle brought everyone to the great hall”, Neville answered. “We only just managed to get away”. 

Harry took a deep breath and nodded. 

“Ok”, he said. There are plenty of passageways out of the school. We need to have someone manning each one and ushering students through”.

“But how are we gonna get the student out of the great hall?” Hannah asked. 

Dumbledore stood up then. 

“I’ll take care of Tom. You all focus on getting the students to safety”.

Everyone nodded. After a few minutes of talking through a plan and assigning secret passageways to different people, they were ready to go. Dumbledore led most of the students to the great hall, where they would be evacuating everyone. Harry and Ron split up from the rest of the group. Harry to get his invisibility cloak. Ron to get the dagger embedded with basilisk venom. 

As Harry was running out of Gryffindor tower, wearing the invisibility cloak, he noticed that the castle was much louder and full of more people. He saw Parvati and Dean engaging in a duel with a masked death eater. He saw McGonagall, Lupin, Flitwick, and Sprout all fighting as well. He saw Ginny running by with Luna. They were leading about 30 or so students to one of the passageways. He wanted so badly to make sure Ginny was ok, but he couldn’t. He had to find Dumbledore. The headmaster had insisted on taking on Riddle by himself. Normally that wouldn’t have been such a big of a deal, but in his weakened state, Dumbledore was at a severe disadvantage. 

He turned a corridor and saw a horrifying sight before him. A whole group of students were lying on the ground, dead. The secret passage they were trying to enter was blown apart. Two heads of blonde hair stood out to him, and Harry noticed that Hannah and Ernie MacMillan were among the casualties. It took everything Harry had to turn away from their lifeless bodies. He was shaking. How many other innocent students were killed?

He turned another corridor. Ron was there, dueling a death eater. Harry stunned the masked man and he fell to the ground. Ron looked around wildly and Harry revealed himself to him. 

“Dumbledore’s dead”, the redhead croaked. 

Harry froze. He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t breathe. Dumbledore couldn’t be dead. 

“I got there just as he was dueling Riddle”, Ron continued. “I was about to step in, but another death eater came at me”. Harry noticed that his friend was crying. “I-I-I saw Riddle raise his wand and-and-and Dumbledore was dead”. Ron wiped his eyes. 

Harry just blinked. 

“Did you get it?” he finally asked. 

“Yeah”, said Ron, taking out the dagger. “It’s right here”. 

Harry took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. They had to get everyone out of the school. Hogwarts was no longer safe. Harry had to stay level-headed. He had to be a leader. Riddle had gone too far even before he had taken Hermione away. Now he had killed Dumbledore and caused the deaths of many others. Harry vowed then and there that he would kill Tom Riddle for everything he had done. 

\---------------------------------------------------------

Tom let out a laugh. Everything had gone perfectly. He still couldn’t believe that he had managed to off the great Albus Dumbledore himself. When he had heard that Dumbledore had found out the location of the locket, he was panicked at first, but quickly saw the benefit to the situation. Rather than quickly retrieving the locket and hiding it someplace else, he decided to use this as an opportunity to weaken his greatest rival enough so that he could kill him. 

Once he had gathered all of the students in the great hall, he had offered them positions as some of his followers. Many from Slytherin house accepted his invitation, though not as many as he would have hoped. He noticed Blaise dragging the cowardly Theo over to the other death eaters. No students from Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw decided to cross over. One Gryffindor tried to. Cormac Mclaggen (who had to repeat the year), terrified that everyone who wouldn’t join the Dark Lord would be killed had immediately gotten up and rushed over to Tom’s side. 

Tom didn’t let him get very far. He remembered how Mclaggen had treated Hermione. She had begged him not to hurt the cocky Gryffindor, and he had reluctantly relented to her request. There was no way that he was letting the boy get away this time. The boy was dead before he could blink. 

After Tom successfully killed the only person that really stood in his way, he went about his plan to take over the ministry. It was surprisingly easier than he would have expected it to be. Many of his followers and death eaters had important high-up jobs that were perfect for causing chaos and disruption. The minister himself, Cornelius Fudge, was also a fool and surrendered almost immediately. 

If only Hermione was that easy to take over. 

\------------------------------------------------------

“Hermione!” Draco ran into her room, gasping. 

She looked at him in alarm from her place in the chair by the window. 

“We’ve got to go!” the blonde boy said, hurriedly. 

“What’s going on?” she asked. 

“Riddle’s killed Dumbledore and he’s taking over the ministry as we speak”.

Hermione put her hand over her mouth in shock. No. Nonononono. This wasn’t happening. Dumbledore wasn’t dead. Riddle wasn’t winning. None of this was really going on. Draco ran over to her and put both of his hands on her shoulders. 

“I’ve got to get you away from him, Hermione”, he said. “When he gets back, there will be nothing I can do to stop him from doing whatever he wants to do to you”. He looked her desperately in the eyes. 

Hermione gulped, took a deep breath, and stood up. Draco sighed in relief and handed her one of his robes. It was a lot thicker than one of the dressing gowns she would otherwise wear, and she accepted it gratefully. Draco grabbed her hand and they ran out of the room and down the hall. 

There was no one around other than a couple stunned death eaters. Everyone else was probably out helping Tom. Hermione wondered where Narcissa was, but she didn’t ask Draco. 

They were at the door, and then they were beyond it. 

She was free. She was finally free. She gave a startled gasp. Draco looked at her and smiled. He wanted nothing more than to kiss her right then and there. And then Draco fell. It was like he had been hit with a brick wall. Someone had used “Impedimenta” on him. 

“Draco!” Hermione gasped. She bent down to see if he was alright. 

“Run!”, he gasped, clutching his chest. “Go!”

“I wouldn’t if I were you, Miss Granger”. 

Hermione froze and turned to see Severus Snape walking towards them. She reached inside the pocket of Draco’s robes for her wand but found nothing. She forgot that she didn’t have a wand anymore. She reached for Draco’s wand, but it suddenly zoomed away into Snape’s outstretched hand. She looked desperately around for something to fight Snape off with, but there was nothing. She looked pleadingly up into the man’s eyes but saw no remorse there. 

“The Dark Lord isn’t going to be happy about this”, Snape muttered, pressing the mark on his left arm. 

In a few moments, Tom was there. Snape gave him a look, and Tom seemed to know exactly what had just happened. He looked just as furious as Hermione expected he would. 

‘Incarcerous”, he said. 

Ropes bound themselves around both Hermione and Draco, though she noticed that Draco’s ropes were significantly tighter than hers. Draco looked over at her, hopelessness covering his face. “I’m sorry”, he mouthed to her. She just shook her head, trying to convey to him that none of this was his fault. 

Draco wished he could hold her. She looked as terrified as she did when Tom would be about to rape her. He had promised to protect her. How he wished he could fulfill that promise. 

Tom was stalking over to them. 

“How dare you”, he hissed at Hermione. “How dare you try to leave. I thought I had made it specifically clear that you are mine!” He slapped her across the face. 

“Don’t touch her!” Draco yelled. “Don’t you dare lay a hand on her!”

Tom turned his attention over to him, but Draco didn’t cower. He lifted himself up as high as he could, glaring at Tom directly in the eye. 

“I can’t believe you Draco”, Tom said. “You had started out so promising and now….” he stopped and stared even deeper into Draco’s eyes. “It was you”, he breathed. “It was you who caused my diary to fall into Dumbledore’s hands! It was you who caused it to be destroyed!” 

Tom’s face was turning red. His hands were shaking. He was going out of control. 

“Crucio!” he cried. 

Draco started screaming in pain, writhing around on the ground. Hermione screamed. 

“NO! Don’t hurt him! Please don’t hurt him!” she cried. 

Tom ignored her and continued his torturing of Draco. Hermione continued to scream, trying her best to free herself from her bonds. 

Tom finally stopped the curse. Draco lay on his side, gasping. He looked at Hermione, tears pouring down his face, and she wished that she could hug him tightly and take all memories of the pain away from him. 

“I’m sorry”, she whispered. “I’m so sorry”.

“Hermione”, Draco gasped. “I…”

“Avada Kedavra!”

Draco never got to finish his sentence. He never would get to finish a lot of things. He would never get to start a lot of things. He would never get to live out his life because Tom had so brutally stolen it from him. Hermione froze as she watched the last breath of life leave Draco’s body. She couldn’t scream. She couldn’t cry. She couldn’t comprehend what had just happened. She couldn’t believe that someone she had considered to be a dear friend was gone just like that. With only two words. 

A group of death eaters came running across the lawn towards them, Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy at the front. They looked at Draco’s lifeless body and froze. Narcissa gave a choked sob and fell down beside her murdered son, touching his face, his hair, his hands, as if to try to wake him up. But Draco wouldn’t wake. He stayed on the ground, eyes open and glassy. 

“You killed my son”, Lucius said, frozen in disbelief. 

Tom painted a solemn look on his face. A look that Hermione was positive was fake. 

“Draco chose to betray me, to betray us”, he said. “He forced my hand”.

Lucius didn’t seem to accept this explanation. He joined his wife in the ground who was whimpering, “My baby. My baby. My sweet baby boy”. 

Hermione started to cry. The ropes holding her in place fell off of her and Tom yanked her to her feet. She felt him drag her back into the manor as if she were watching it happen to someone else. She felt too numb to fight him off. 

Before she knew it, they were in her room. Tom stalked towards her, livid. 

“I’ve been too patient with you, my sweet”, he growled at her. “I have given you more time than I originally would have to submit yourself to me, but you continue to defy me”.

He stopped so he was right in front of her, but Hermione didn’t back down. She raised her chin and looked right back at him. She wouldn’t let him have the satisfaction of seeing her fear again. 

“Our first time was supposed to be a wonderful experience, one that you’d enjoy”, he continued. “But you must now be punished, and you will be a willing participant in that punishment. Imperio!”

Hermione felt a huge weight being lifted off of her shoulders. All the pain, anger, and grief she was feeling was gone in the blink of an eye. All that mattered to her was listening to Tom. All that mattered was making him happy. 

“No!” Another part of her said. “Don’t listen to what he says!”

She felt her body removing her robe against her will and focused as much as she could on not letting that happen. Tom pressed harder, but she pressed back. He put her under the curse again and again but was still unable to get her to behave. 

They stayed like this for over an hour, neither side budging. Hermione felt her control slipping but concentrated harder. She felt like she was going to explode. Right when she felt like she was about to surrender, something warm seemed to reach out and cover her mind like a blanket. This was safe. She didn’t know how she knew it, but she did. She knew that in order to prevent Tom from taking her fully, she had to let the blanket fully cover her. 

And so she did.


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm devastated by what I had to do to Draco! 😢 But I had to. I hope you guys like this chapter!
> 
> J. K. Rowling owns the rights to Harry Potter

November 1997

 

Number 12 Grimmauld Place was one of the gloomiest and most depressing houses Harry had ever had the displeasure of staying in. The house had belonged to Sirius’s parents before they died and had many enchantments on it to keep intruders out. After adding some enchantments of their own, it was the perfect place to hide from Tom Riddle and regroup. 

After escaping from Hogwarts, many of the underage students were able to find and rejoin their families. There were a lot, however, that couldn’t. They and the of age students that insisted on fighting joined the adults at No. 12 that called themselves the Order of the Phoenix. 

The leader of the Order was an old auror named Alastor Moody. He was an extremely grizzled man with scars covering his body, a wooden leg, and a large magical eye that had special properties. Moody freaked Harry out, but he had to admit that the man was incredibly skilled and was an amazing strategist. 

Harry’s parents, the Weasleys, Sirius, Lupin, Peter, Hagrid, McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout were amongst those who joined the Order. There were also many people that Harry didn’t know. There was Nymphadora Tonks, the daughter of one of Sirius’s cousins and a spunky fun metamorphmagus (someone who could change their appearance at will) as well as an auror. There was Kingsley Shacklebolt, another auror and Moody’s second in command. There were Fabian and Gideon Prewett, Molly Weasley’s older brothers that were exceptionally skilled wizards and reminded Harry of an older Fred and George. Neville’s parents were also there, to Harry’s delight. He always liked Frank and Alice Longbottom, but they were usually busy working so Neville was with his grandmother more often than not. 

Speaking of the Longbottoms, Neville was a complete and utter mess. The minute he found out that Hannah had been killed, he had been inconsolable for days. Harry felt devastated for his friend. He didn’t know what he would do if Ginny had died. The only person that Neville would let near him for a while was Luna Lovegood. She comforted him in ways that Harry had a feeling no one else could. Neville was finally able to pull himself together after a week or so, and he decided to dedicate himself to destroying Riddle in any way he could.

The day after they got to No. 12, Ron started acting quite odd. He would look around as if he were looking for someone that wasn’t there and Harry noticed him talking to himself. He finally confronted his friend and was absolutely shocked at what he had learned. 

Hermione was talking to Ron in his mind. 

At first, Harry thought that Ron had gone completely bonkers. Ron seemed to think so at first as well, but after a few days learned that it really was Hermione speaking to him. Apparently, Tom had tried to imperius Hermione into having sex with him, but she was able to fight him off. He had used the curse on her so many times that in order to escape him, she basically locked herself in her own mind, leaving her in a comatose state. 

Harry had never heard of something like that happening before, and neither had any of the other Order members once the boys asked them about it. Lupin stated that Hermione was an extremely powerful witch and that maybe that was why she was able to accomplish such a feat. That still didn’t explain why she was able to talk to Ron though. Lily theorized that because of Ron and Hermione’s relationship, she was able to form a connection between their two minds. 

Ron took immediate advantage of this. He was relieved to find that Riddle hadn’t raped her, but was enraged by everything she had suffered from. They talked constantly, saying how much they missed each other, and Ron vowing to save and protect her. 

Harry wished that he could talk with Hermione too. He really missed his best friend, but he could tell that this was very helpful for Ron. The redhead had smiled for the first time in months and was filled with hope. Harry hoped that they would be able to fulfill Ron’s promise to Hermione and save her from the monster that was keeping her locked away. 

Along with being able to see how Hermione was doing and talk to her for the first time in forever, there was another benefit of Hermione’s consciousness being able to speak to Ron. She had found the locations of the three potential horcruxes that Harry and Ron had yet to find, and was able to give that information to them. 

After talking it over, Harry and Ron decided to tell the Order about horcruxes so they could help them retrieve them all. They were all shocked, except for Lupin, who said he figured that was why Harry, Ron, and Hermione had asked him how to destroy a horcrux the previous year. According to Hermione, the diadem was in a secret room in Hogwarts, the cup was in the Malfoy’s Gringotts vault, and the ring was at the Gaunt’s house. 

The Order immediately sprung into action. They divided themselves into three teams, each one would be responsible for retrieving a horcrux. The team led by Moody would be retrieving the ring, the team led by Kingsley would be retrieving the cup, and the team led by James would be retrieving the diadem. 

It took the teams a few days to successfully complete their tasks. As two of them would be breaking into the two most difficult places to steal from (Gringotts and Hogwarts), they weren’t expecting this mission to be a piece of cake that would be finished up quickly. There were a couple Order members that stayed at No. 12 to help with the kids. Mrs. Weasley and Peter were among these and Mrs. Weasley’s idea of being productive was cleaning the house. She insisted that just because they were living in a war, they had no excuse to live in a filthy disgusting environment. Most people got tired of this rather quickly, and Harry, Ron, Neville, and a few others hid out in one of the bedrooms so they could actually do things that were productive. 

Harry took charge of continuing their training and Ron stayed in the corner to talk with Hermione. The boys were thrilled when they found out where she was being kept, and it took everything the remaining Order members had to keep them from going after her. It would do no good to fight Riddle while he still had horcruxes, and it wouldn’t help Hermione in the slightest. 

Moody’s group was the first to return. They had the ring with them, and after an examination from Lupin, they were able to confirm that it was already made into a horcrux. Ron had stabbed it with the dagger, and they were glad to see it successfully destroyed. 

James’s team returned next with Kingsley’s arriving a few days after. Neither the diadem nor the cup were made into horcruxes yet, so they just hid the items away with where Harry had kept the locket. 

With Riddle’s horcruxes out of the way, they could finally start formulating a plan to rescue Hermione. 

\---------------------------------------------------------

Tom screamed in pain The ring had been destroyed. He could feel that it had. He blasted a chair into pieces and bent over to try to control himself. 

Though he had successfully taken over the British wizarding world, Tom was not pleased. On the contrary, he was very pissed off. After he had tried imperiousing Hermione into finally having sex with him, she had suddenly fallen into a coma. He tried to wake her up, to no avail. It was infuriating. She was right there but not really at the same time. There was no use claiming her if she couldn’t feel it, so he left her in her room, waiting for her to wake up. 

Now that his ring was destroyed, Tom felt angrier than ever. An idea formulated in his mind. An idea that he fell in love with the moment he thought of it. An idea that would both solve his problem of not having a horcrux and his problem of Hermione not being his. 

After some lessons from Severus, he had finally conquered legilimency. He didn’t know why he hadn’t attempted to learn the art before but was glad that he had learned it now. Using the new skill, he was finally able to draw Hermione out of her mind and back into reality. 

Hermione had been talking with Ron (the only thing that was keeping her sane in all of this horror) when she had been forcefully yanked out of the warm safeness of her consciousness. The sudden change back into reality was jarring and incredibly uncomfortable. She could tell immediately that something was wrong with her when she had awoken and found herself on the floor of her room.

She could feel something in the pit of her stomach. Something that she couldn’t identify. She was in a constant state of nausea and she felt like she wanted to throw up. It was like there was a parasite of some sort burrowing inside of her and her body was trying and failing, to reject it. 

Tom was standing above her, looking smug and pleased with himself. He did something to her and she wasn’t sure she wanted to find out what it was. He looked different. He was even paler than he had been before and his cheeks were sunken in. His hair looked more oily and his fingers seemed longer and bonier. What was most startling was that his dark brown eyes had turned red. He was no longer handsome Tom Riddle that made girls swoon and spurn guys with jealousy. Hermione was more scared of him now than she ever had been before. 

“What’s wrong with me?” she finally gasped. “What did you do?”

His smile just grew wider. 

“I have made you mine in a way that no one else can”, he purred. “A part of you has always been inside of me, but now a part of me is officially inside of you”.

The truth hit Hermione like a ton of bricks. He eyes widened. She clasped a hand over her mouth. The feeling of wanting to throw up intensified. 

“You didn’t”, she whispered, horrified. 

“I did”, he replied. “You are my last horcrux, Hermione. Now we will never be parted”.

Hermione was frozen in a state of shock. No matter how much she thought she knew about Tom, he always managed to surprise her. 

“Why would you do this?” she asked, wanting to cry. 

He bent down to where she was laying on the floor and looked her in the eye. She shivered. It was like he was staring into her soul. Maybe he was. She didn’t know what would happen to a person if they were made into a horcrux. She didn’t think anyone would ever even imagine doing something so terrible. 

“Because I love you”, he whispered. 

Hermione wanted to laugh at the incredulity of all of this. There was no way on earth that Tom had even the slightest capability of feeling the emotion of love. He was truly mad. 

“Love?” she asked. “You call this, whatever this is, love? Do you even know what love is? This is many things, obsession, madness; but love is definitely not a word to describe what you feel for me”.

Tom was frowning now, an annoyed look on his face. Hermione leaned forward so that they were just inches apart. 

“You are insane if you think that I will ever love you”, she spat in his face. 

Tom reared back. For a moment, Hermione thought that he was going to hit her again. She raised her chin to accept the blow, but it never came. Tom’s hands were in fists and he was shaking, but he didn’t lay a finger on her. 

“I will never stop fighting for you Hermione Granger”, he announced, standing up and walking to the door of her room. 

“I will do whatever it takes to make you love me. No matter what I have to do, if I have to kill the entire population of Europe, I’ll do it. You will love me and you will be mine. We will be together forever and nothing will ever take you away from me”.

And then he was gone, and Hermione was left alone. Well, as alone she could be with the soul of the Dark Lord inside of her.


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh, it's almost over! I can't believe that we only have one more chapter left after this! Thank you all for being so wonderful and supportive throughout this entire journey! I hope you all enjoy this! Let me know what you think!
> 
> J. K. Rowling owns the rights to Harry Potter

December 1997

 

Malfoy Manor was easy to find. The Malfoy’s were huge figures in the wizarding world and everyone of importance knew where they lived in order to attend the many dinner parties they had thrown in the past. 

The entire Order of the Phoenix, as well as all of the Hogwarts students that wished to fight, were staring at the large house with apprehension. Hermione was somewhere behind those walls, as well as the Dark Lord himself. Ron was shaking, Harry could tell that his best friend wanted nothing more than to rip Tom Riddle limb from limb, and he could safely say that he wanted the same thing. But Hermione came first. They were going to focus on rescuing her first and killing Riddle second. 

Harry looked at Ginny. She was staring at the manor before them with a look of extreme concentration. She noticed him looking at her and turned to face him. There were so many things that Harry wanted to say to her, but he couldn’t find the words. What if one of them died in there? Ginny seemed to understand what he was feeling. She reached her hand up to cup his face and gave him a short soft kiss, their lips just barely brushing. Harry squeezed her hand and turned to focus on the mission ahead of them. 

\-------------------------------------------------------

“My Lord, we have some visitors”, Travers announced to the room. 

Every eye turned to the Dark Lord, who sat back in his chair, pondering the information one of his most loyal followers had just given him. 

“Dumbledore’s supporters I assume?” he asked, nonchalantly. 

“Yes, my Lord”, Travers answered. 

Tom nodded and smiled. The other death eaters exchanged looks. Lucius looked down, his hands were clenched. 

“Let them come”, Lord Voldemort hissed. 

\-------------------------------------------------------

Hermione lay in her room, curled up on her side. She felt like she should be crying, but she also felt unable to cry. It was like something was preventing her from doing so. She felt numb like there was something in her missing, or maybe something there that didn’t belong. 

She was too tired to think straight. She wanted more than ever to be held by her parents or her friends. She wondered if she could kill the horcrux within herself. Was that even an option? Would the horcrux within her lash out and stop her from doing so? 

While a part of her wanted to attempt to see if it would work, the majority of her brain convinced her not to. She was ashamed to admit it, but she was terrified of what came after death and honestly didn’t want to find out what it was anytime soon. 

Was it selfish for her to not kill herself and doom the rest of the world just because she was scared?

\-------------------------------------------------------

Lucius stood outside his house at the place where Draco had been murdered. It had been a couple of weeks, but the pain of losing his son would never fade. Narcissa wouldn’t speak to him. She claimed that he was to blame. 

He agreed with her. 

What kind of father was he to put his son in the hands of a murderous crazy-man? What kind of father let himself be seduced by the power another man had to offer that he disregarded the safety of his own son?

Draco’s death was his fault, and no matter what he did he would never be able to see his son again. A part of his heart was missing and would never return. 

Lucius steeled himself. Draco died trying to stop Riddle, and he would do whatever it took to make sure that his son hadn’t died in vain. 

\-------------------------------------------------------

Peter Pettigrew and a group of Hogwarts kids were among the first group to enter the manor. That group had split up into different sections to search different parts of the house for both Riddle and Hermione. Peter was quite nervous. He was hopeless at dueling and wasn’t sure if he could hold his own against a death eater. Luckily for him, Fabian Prewett was the leader of his group and the students he was with were also quite good. A curly haired girl named Lavender and a blonde boy named Anthony were among them. 

Fabian pressed his ear to a door, listened, and then motioned for the rest of the group to follow him inside. The room was large and nearly empty. Nearly, for Tom Riddle was standing in the center. Lucius Malfoy was dead at his feet. The elder Malfoy had appeared to try to duel the Dark Lord and lost. 

Riddle turned to the group and smiled a chilling smile. Wands were raised and the battle began. 

\-------------------------------------------------------

Harry, Ron, Ginny, Neville, and Luna had split off from everyone else once they had entered the manor. So far, the only death eater they had come across was a weedy-looking man with dark hair that Ginny immediately blasted away. They weren’t going to test their luck though and did their best to stay constantly on guard. 

They searched room after room but found no sign of either Hermione or Riddle. Neville flung open the door to one particular room and they all stopped to see a woman with long blonde hair sitting in a chair by the window. 

The woman turned to face him and Harry recognized her as Narcissa Malfoy. He had never seen her up close before, but he had heard countless stories of her beauty. She didn’t look very pretty at the moment. Her eyes were bloodshot and filled with tears and she looked almost dead. 

The five students raised their wands, but she did nothing but look at them. She didn’t seem to care whether or not they were there. 

“Where’s Hermione?” Ron finally asked. 

She blinked, unperturbed at the wand pointed at her face. 

“My son was murdered by the man my husband pledged his loyalty to”, she softly said, as if she still couldn’t believe it. 

Harry and the others exchanged glances. Malfoy was dead? Harry found himself feeling sadder about that fact than he thought he would have. Malfoy was annoying and a bully, but he didn’t deserve to be killed. 

“He died trying to help your friend”, she continued, ignoring the shocked looks she caused at that statement. “She doesn’t deserve what has been done to her”.

Narcissa paused before she finally added, “She is being kept in the far East bedroom on the second floor”. 

The five Hogwarts students took off towards the place that Narcissa had spoken of. As they traveled throughout the house they noticed the change in atmosphere. Fights were going on all around them between death eaters and Order members. Harry saw his parents working together seamlessly to take down one particularly powerful masked man. Parvati, Dean, and Seamus were also there, each battling their own death eater rather well. 

They continued on their way but were suddenly blocked by a tall man with black greasy hair and a hooked nose. His long black cloak reminded Harry of a bat. The man raised his wand, but before any of them could do anything, Sirius shouted from somewhere nearby, “Snape!”

Snape’s eyes immediately honed in on Sirius, who was quickly making his way towards them. The greasy man scowled, a look of the utmost loathing clear on his face. The two men started a vicious duel, that Harry and his friends only had mere seconds to get out of the way of. Part of Harry wanted to stay and make sure his godfather would be ok, but a sharp tug from Ron reminded him that he was needed elsewhere. Sirius was an auror and a very good one at that. He’d be fine. 

A few death eaters blocked their path to the stairs. Two of them were both so ugly that they had to be brother and sister. The two groups started to duel. Luna and Ginny were both working together to take down a giant blonde man, Ron soon had the upper hand on a tall thin man with blonde hair tied in a braid, and Harry and Neville were taking on the ugly twins. 

The woman twin sent a jinx towards Luna, but it was easily blocked by Neville who, just as easily, stupefied her right after. Harry dodged a few hexes sent by the woman’s male counterpart and finally subdued him with “petrificus totalus”.

The large blonde man screamed, and Harry whirled around to see slimy large bats shooting out of the death eaters nose and flying around his face. His screams were cut off as Luna stupefied him, but the bats continued to flap around his unconscious head. Ginny was grinning and turned to Harry to say, “Bat-Bogey Hex. Lupin told me about it and I always wanted to use it”.

Harry couldn’t help but laugh. The idea of a hex that turned one's bogeys into bats was a ridiculous one. Magic would never fail to boggle his mind. 

With those four death eaters out of commission, their path to Hermione was cleared. They raced up the steps and down the hall. More fighting was going on here. Harry saw McGonagall, Moody, and Kingsley all fighting masked figures. Harry saw Lupin and Sirius out of the corner of his eye charge up the stairs to join the fray. He was relieved to see that Sirius had beaten Snape. 

While there were quite a few Order members all fighting, there seemed to be twice as many death eaters. They would soon be outnumbered. 

“Harry! You and Ron go get Hermione!” Neville shouted. “We’ll help everyone out over here!” 

Before Harry could argue, the round-faced boy grabbed Luna’s hand and pulled her in to join the fight. Ginny looked at their retreating backs before turning to face Harry. 

“Go!”, she yelled. “We’ve got this!”

Harry didn’t want to go. He didn’t want to separate himself from her. She didn’t give him a chance to tell her so though, as she ran after Neville and Luna. Ron looked at his little sister’s retreating form. He wasn’t fond of the idea of her being out of his sight either, but they had a mission and they were going to do it. 

Hermione’s room was in view. She was only a few yards away. They were so close to getting to her. All that stood in their way was the door and the two people posted in front of it: Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott.

Harry and Ron both raised their wands to hex the boys. 

“Stupefy!’

Zabini slumped over on the ground, but it wasn’t Harry or Ron who cast the spell. It was Nott. The tweedy boy had his wand pointed at his friend on the floor with an expression of disbelief, as if he couldn’t understand that he just did that. 

Nott turned his head to look at Harry and Ron and quickly stepped out of the way of the door. 

“Get her out of here”, he trembled and disappeared into the commotion that they had just left behind. 

Harry and Ron didn’t spend too much time thinking on Nott’s behavior. They flung open the door to see their best friend in the whole world standing up and looking out the window with her hands pressed up against the glass. She turned to face them and the walls that she had so desperately tried to hold up, and often failed to do so, came completely crashing down. 

She moved towards them and they ran to her at the same time. Ron pulled her into his arms and she squeezed him tight, shaking and sobbing. Harry hugged them both, rubbing Hermione’s back to try to soothe her as Ron whispered comforting things into her ear. 

“I told you I’d save you”, he was saying. “I’ve got you. You’re ok. Everything’s gonna be ok”. 

But Hermione didn’t calm down. On the contrary, she seemed even more upset. She detached herself partially from the boys so that she could look them in the eyes. 

It was unreal seeing them there. She wanted to pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. Oh, how she had missed them. How she wanted nothing more than to believe that what they were saying was true. That everything was going to be ok and that she was going to live happily ever after with them. 

She knew now in her heart that she wouldn’t. That she couldn’t. 

“You’re here”, she whispered. “You’re both really here”. 

They both beamed at her, Ron smiling for the first time in what seemed like forever. But their smiles were quickly wiped away when she said, “but you’re too late”.

They frowned. 

“What do you mean?” Harry asked. 

Hermione was shaking. 

“You have to kill me”, she whispered. 

The boys looked at each other in horror before turning back to her. 

“There’s no way in hell we’re doing such a thing”, Ron said, outraged. 

“But you must”, she begged. She closed her eyes. She didn’t know how much longer she could stay strong and beg them to do this. “Riddle’s turned me into a horcrux”. 

Harry’s and Ron’s worlds collapsed from out and under them. They both stared at her in disbelief. 

“No”, Ron whispered. “No no no no. That’s impossible!”

“It isn’t”, Hermione shook her head. “And he did it. The only way you can beat him is to kill me. You have to do it”. 

Ron pulled her back into his arms so that she was crushed against his chest. He was shaking. Being in his arms actually helped Hermione calm down a bit. She felt safe there. He smelled like home. Like comfort. She wished that she could just stay there and not be responsible for the fate of the world. She wished she could live out the rest of her days with Ron. 

But she couldn’t. Riddle took that right away from her, and it left her devastated. 

“We’re not gonna kill you, Hermione”, Harry whispered. 

She turned her head so that she could see his face. He had tears pouring out of his eyes, but his voice remained firm. 

“We’re gonna find a way to get this thing out of you without hurting you so that we can blast that bastard into a million pieces”. 

Hermione shook her head. “Harry….”, she pleaded. 

But her boys wouldn’t listen to her. They just got her back and they were not letting her go again. 

“Let’s get you out of here and we’ll figure out a plan”, Harry said, trying his best to sound confident. 

Ron wrapped his arms around Hermione’s shoulders, and the two boys led her out of her room despite her protests that she needed to be killed. The way back to the main staircase was blocked by all the fighting still going on. Ginny’s bright red head of hair could be clearly visible through the craziness. At least she was ok. Luckily, there was a back staircase and Hermione quickly showed them to it. 

They went down it and ended up in what appeared to be a servant’s hallway. It was silent, eerily so. Their footsteps were the only noises made in the dark hallway. At the end of the hallway was a door. A light was seeping out from under it. Harry got to the door first. He put his ear up against it and, once he was sure that there was no fighting going on behind it, he opened the door. 

The door led to a large empty room that was probably used as a ballroom when the Malfoys still held their parties. Now, however, it was filled with bodies. The Golden Trio stopped in their tracks as they looked in horror at the scene before them. All of these people had tried to fight Tom Riddle and all of them failed. 

Hermione put her hand over her mouth. The three of them all had tears running down their cheeks. These people were their friends. They were strong people with full lives ahead of them that they would now never get to live. There was Lavender Brown and Anthony Goldstein. There was Colin Creevey and Fabian Prewett. There was Katie Bell and Nymphadora Tonks. All dead. 

Hermione felt Harry stiffen. She turned her head to what he had noticed and gasped at the sight of Peter Pettigrew’s dead body. She knew that the man had been like an uncle to Harry and didn’t for the life of her know what to say that could console her friend. 

And there was Tom Riddle. The once handsome young man stood in the center of the room with his back to the trio. He turned to face them, his eyes glinting. 

“I knew you’d come”, he hissed. 

Hermione shivered. She hated how his eyes had turned red. They made him seem more snake than human. Her boys recoiled. Riddle’s new appearance appeared to have shocked them. 

“But you’re not taking her away from me”, Riddle continued. 

Ron tightened his hold around Hermione’s shoulders and Harry squeezed her hand before stepping in front of the pair of them, blocking her from Riddle’s gaze. 

“I’d like to see you try to stop us”, Harry said, fury for Riddle coursing through his veins. 

Riddle snarled at Harry and the two dark-haired young men raised their wands. Moments later, spells were ricocheting off the walls. Ron pulled Hermione away from the fierce duel that was taking place.

“Ron stop!” Hermione gasped before he could take her out of the room. “You’ve got to kill me. You’ve got to do it now. Harry’s going to die if you don’t”.

Ron shook his head. 

“No”, he said adamantly. “We’re gonna find another way. There’s always another way”.

“Not this time”, Hermione said softly. She was crying. “There’s no other way. I can’t let all of Britain suffer because I survive. I can’t let Riddle destroy everything and cause the deaths of hundreds and thousands of more people. I can’t stand by and let him kill Harry...or you”.

Ron was crying now too. He was still shaking his head, but not as insistently. Hermione reached up her hand to cup his cheek, and he leaned into it. Oh, how she wished she wouldn’t have to leave this sweet wonderful boy behind. But fate was a cruel thing. 

“Please be strong, Ron”, she sobbed. “Please. You have to do this”.

“I promised you I would save you”, he cried, running his fingers through her hair. “I thought I did save you. You were in my arms and everything was ok”.

Hermione kissed him. She cupped his face with her hands and he held her close to him. 

“You are saving me, Ron”, she whispered against his lips. 

They looked into each other's eyes and the world stood still. It was if they were the only people in it and the battle between Harry and Riddle still wasn’t raging on behind them. Harry screamed in pain, causing her to wince and bringing them out of the moment. They had to do this now. 

“I love you”, Ron said, shakily as he pulled out the basilisk venom infused dagger.

“I love you too”, she said back. 

And Ron continued to hold her in his arms as he plunged the dagger through her chest.


	30. Chapter 30

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the last chapter everybody! I hope you like it!
> 
> All rights of Harry Potter and its characters belong to J. K. Rowling.

Hermione opened her eyes to find light everywhere. She was in a ridiculously large room that was completely white. The details were a little hazy and covered in an almost fog-like substance, so she had no idea of where she was. 

To her left was a bench. There was something making pitiful sounds from underneath it. She bent down to see what it was and recoiled at the sight of a small creature. It was the size of a baby, but it was slimy and disgusting. She almost gagged. 

“Hermione”, came a voice. 

Hermione gasped and whirled around to see Draco walking towards her. He was wearing pure white robes and had on a big smile. His eyes were gleaming as he looked at her. She ran to him and flung her arms around him, tears springing out of her eyes. 

“Draco”, she cried. “I thought you were dead!”

“I am”, he said softly.

She pulled back a little bit to look him in the eye. He was still smiling at her, but he looked sad even as he did so. 

“Wait a second”, she gasped. 

She put her head in her hands. Everything was coming back to her. Tom standing over all of the dead bodies of her friends. Harry dueling Tom. Her begging Ron to kill her. Them professing their love for one another. Ron fulfilling her request. She sucked in a breath. 

“I’m dead”, she whispered. 

She honestly wasn’t as upset as she thought she would be. After suffering because of Tom Riddle for so long, it actually felt peaceful to know that she would finally be free of him. 

But Draco was shaking his head. 

“No, Hermione. You’re not dead”.

Hermione frowned. “Then what am I doing here? Where am I?”

Draco looked around. He took her hand and they started walking.

“Well, I don’t know where we are, but I do know that you’re not dead. At least, not yet”.

“I don’t understand”.

“I think that when you chose to kill yourself because of the horcrux inside of you, something special happened”, Draco said. “I think that because you made the choice to sacrifice yourself for the good of everyone else, when Weasley stabbed you, only the horcrux inside of you was killed. Your own soul was untouched”. 

They walked in silence for a while. Hermione’s mind was reeling. 

“So this is somewhere between life and death?” she asked. 

Draco nodded. “I think so”.

“But you’re still dead?”

Draco gave her another sad smile. 

“I’m afraid I am”. He squeezed her hand. 

Hermione looked down. “I’m so sorry Draco”, she said. “It’s all my fault that you died”.

“No, it’s not. Don’t beat yourself up over it…”

“It is though!” she insisted. “You started going against Tom to help me and by doing so he killed you”.

Draco stopped walking and turned so that they were face to face. 

“I did choose to move against Riddle, and though you were a major factor in that decision, you weren’t the only one. You opened my eyes to the truth. Riddle was a madman. I had just never really realized it before”. He took a breath. They stared into each other's eyes for a moment, not saying anything. 

“You are so much better than him”, he continued. “So much better. You’re such a good person. I realized that a little late, but I knew that I had to do anything I could to make sure you wouldn’t end up in his hands”. He looked down. “And I failed. He got you and he almost did the most unspeakable things to you. He made you into a horcrux for God’s sake!”

Draco was trembling and so was Hermione. 

“I would do anything for you, Hermione”, he said, looking at her meaningfully. “If I had to choose someone to die for, it would be you. I’d go to the ends of the Earth…. I’d go through hell to make sure you’d stay safe”.

Hermione was at a loss for words. She couldn’t believe what Draco was saying. 

“What made you believe that you would die for me?” she asked. She wasn’t sure what answer she was looking for. 

Draco opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it. He chewed on his lip for a couple seconds, thinking, before he finally said, “Because you deserve the world, Hermione. There aren’t many people as good as you, and we need to keep those people safe”.

Hermione didn’t know why but in addition to feeling happy by his statement, she also felt disappointed. Why did she feel as if Draco wasn’t telling her the entire answer? 

“Why are you here?” she asked. “Why are you here if this is an in-between place and you’re dead?”

“I have no idea”, Draco said, shaking his head. “I do know though that you have a choice. You can choose to go back to the land of the living, or you can go beyond”. He gestured out in front of him. “I think I was sent here to comfort you as you made that choice”.

Hermione looked at the foggy bright distance. Part of her wanted to go with Draco and never look back. She could hear in her mind the part of his sentence that he left unsaid. “You could go beyond with me”. 

Another part of her insisted that it wasn’t time for her to go yet. That she still had a long life left to live. She had an opportunity that no one else did. She could go back to the life that was taken from her when she “died”. She could go back to her friends. To Harry and Ginny and Neville. 

She could go back to Ron.

Draco seemed to know her decision before she even said a word. He smiled sadly again and squeezed her hand. 

“Go”, he whispered. 

Hermione looked at him. This was the last time she would ever see Draco Malfoy. 

“Thank you, Draco”, she said to him, her eyes brimming with tears. “For everything”.

He nodded, wiped her tears away, and then he and the light that was shining all around her was replaced with darkness. 

\-------------------------------------------------------

March 1998

 

Hermione was laying in a bed. For a split second, she was afraid that all of this had been a dream and she was back in her bed at the manor. But she was quickly proven otherwise. These blankets were cotton and the bed was much smaller than the four-poster she had been sleeping in. 

She shifted, groaned, and heard someone gasp. That same person called someone else over, and she could sense that there were at least two people standing over her. 

She opened up her eyes to find Ron and Harry looking back at her. She burst into tears and reached out to them. They each took one of her hands. Ron kissed her on the forehead, and when she tried to move closer to him, she was met with a stinging feeling in her chest. 

She let go of Harry’s hand to touch the area that hurt and found that her chest was covered in bandages. Harry grabbed her hand again. 

“You’re ok”, he soothed. 

“Where am I?” she asked. 

“St. Mungos”, Harry said. “The wizard hospital”. 

Hermione nodded and sank back into the bed. She was trying to process everything that was going on. She remembered that she had been talking with Draco, but the conversation itself had been a blur. Was it a dream?

“What happened?” she asked. “What happened when I…?” she couldn’t finish the question and neither of the boys looked as though they wanted her to. 

“Well”, Harry began, hesitantly. “After Ron….after you….you know, Riddle started screaming like a madman. He collapsed on the floor and wouldn’t stop crying”. Harry shook his head. “I’d never seen anything like it before. And then I…” he looked down, and Hermione realized that it was because he was ashamed. He had killed Tom and he was upset with himself for taking a life. 

“Don’t worry yourself over it, Harry”, she said, squeezing his hand. “Riddle was barely human anymore. Too much of his soul was gone”. 

Harry nodded and gave her a soft smile. 

“How are you doing?” he asked her. “Are you ok? Do you want to talk about….?”

“I’m fine, Harry”, she interrupted. “I don’t want to talk about any of it”. Harry looked surprised at her harsh tone of voice but didn’t push anything. He had been told that it would do her some good to talk about everything, but she obviously wasn’t in the mood yet. Besides, he wasn’t the best person for her to talk to about this. She needed some severe counseling. 

“What happened after Riddle?” she asked, continuing their conversation again. 

“We ran over to you”, Harry said with a shrug of his shoulders. “We thought that you were dead because we were able to kill Riddle and you were, for a while. We were back at No. 12, our base of operations, when you started breathing. We immediately took you to St. Mungos after that. You’ve been unconscious for four months”. 

“How is everyone else?”

“Lots of people died”, Harry said bluntly. “But not as many as Moody said that he assumed would. Kingsley Shacklebolt’s minister of magic now. He used to be an auror. He’s a good guy, you’d like him. Fudge stepped down. He couldn’t take the stress of an actual problem happening that he would have to fix”. Harry was grumbling and Hermione couldn’t help but giggle. Her friend had never been a big fan of the minister of magic. “It’s nice to have someone competent in charge”, he said with a chuckle. 

Hermione focused her attention on Ron. He was looking at the floor and hadn’t spoken a word since she had woken up. 

“You alright, Ron?” she asked. 

His eyes were red and brimmed when he finally looked at her. 

“I killed you, Hermione”, he whispered. “I killed you”.

“It was the only…” she started. 

“I know that it was the only way”, he interrupted. “But that doesn’t excuse the fact that I killed the woman I love”. He looked down again. “How can you stand to look at me now?” he asked. 

Hermione reached forward and touched his cheek. 

“You didn’t kill me, Ron”, she insisted. “You killed the horcrux. Because of you, the world is safe. You saved us all. You did what many would be too afraid to do. You’re a hero. How could I look at you with anything other than admiration?” 

Ron looked down again. Hermione reached up to wipe his tears away. 

“I love you Ron”, she said. 

Ron leaned forward and gently wrapped his arms around her, careful not to disturb her bandages. Hermione ran her fingers through his hair and burrowed her head into his shoulder. 

She was finally safe. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------

September 1, 2015

 

Hermione walked through the barrier that separated platforms nine and ten with a big smile on her face. She would never get over the feeling of being transported to Platform 9 ¾. The scarlet Hogwarts Express let out a large puff of steam. Hermione closed her eyes and remembered back to her first time on the train, when she met her best friends in the entire world and the young man who would nearly cause her doom. 

There hadn’t been much talk of Riddle since his death. Most people elected to ignore everything that had happened. Hermione found that rather insulting. People had died, been separated from their families, and been tortured because of him. She was of the opinion that what he had done should not be forgotten, but should be a reminder of what anyone could become if they were too overcome with evil. 

Hermione’s younger son, Hugo, tugged on her sleeve. She looked down and grinned at him as he pointed to the large eagle owl he had spotted in someone else’s cage. Hermione felt a pang in her heart. Draco had owned an eagle owl. The ministry had not wanted to accept Draco Malfoy as a hero, saying that he was an accomplice in Riddle’s scheme, and it took Hermione fighting tooth and nail in order for them to change their mind. She also had to fight for Narcissa not to be sent to Azkaban. She hadn’t talked to the widowed Mrs. Malfoy since before Draco’s death, and she figured that the older woman didn’t want to. Hermione felt incredibly sorry for her. 

“Mum! Mum! There they are!” shouted Hermione’s nine-year-old daughter Rose, pointing to Harry and Ginny’s family, who had just come into view. 

Rose and Hugo took off, while Hermione and Ron’s older son, Draco Weasley, walked towards them at a slower pace with his parents. Draco was starting his first year at Hogwarts with Harry and Ginny’s oldest son, James, and was quite nervous. He was twisting his hands together and was muttering to himself the different spells he had read of over the summer. 

Hermione squeezed his shoulder. Draco was the only one of her three children that hadn’t inherited the Weasley-red hair, and therefore looked the most like her. He also acted the most like her, being shyer and less outgoing than Rose and Hugo, as well as more dedicated to his studies. He was afraid that he wouldn’t make any friends, a fear that had plagued Hermione’s mind when she had first stepped on the train. 

But Draco would be different. He had James and the rest of his cousins that would stick by his side. He also had Augusta Longbottom, Neville and Luna’s daughter, as an automatic friend as well. He would be just fine, and Hermione never refrained from telling him so. 

They finally reached the Potters, who were among the loudest and craziest on the platform. People had often asked them if they planned on having their children at the same times as one another. It certainly would seem as though they did, as Draco and James were the same age, Rose and Peter were the same age, and Hugo and Lily were the same age, but both families denied any rumors of the sort. It was all just a happy coincidence. 

“But it’s so embarrassing, Dad!” James was whining to his father. “Can't you at least go by a different name for the first couple of weeks? I don’t want to be known as the kid who has a dad as a professor!”

Harry just laughed. He had been the DADA teacher ever since Lupin retired a few years ago, and absolutely loved it. He was by far one of the best DADA teachers Hogwarts had ever had. James did not see that as a good thing, Hermione noted amusedly. 

“You’re not going to be the only one in your year with a professor for a dad”, Ginny said, trying to calm her hyperactive son down. “Neville’s the Herbology professor and you don’t hear Augusta complaining about it”.

“That’s cause Augusta doesn’t care about her social life”, James grumbled. 

The two families laughed. They had found it hilarious that two members of their friend group had both chosen to become teachers at Hogwarts, as it was something none of them had thought they would be doing back in their first few years at Hogwarts. 

Hermione and Ron were the only family without a professor. She was working with the ministry to campaign for the rights of house elves (an organization that she had named after Dobby) and he had opened up a Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes shop for the twins in Hogsmeade. James thought that that was much cooler than what his own father did, but at least he had a mother who was a professional Quidditch player to balance out the cool factor in his parents. 

The whistle sounded, and the remaining students on the platform started to climb onto the train. James just waved goodbye to his family before hopping on but was kind enough to wait for Draco before running off to find a compartment. Draco took his time hugging his family before joining his cousin. 

The Weasleys and the Potters watched as their boys disappeared into the train together. 

“I want to go”, Lily whined. 

“Only four more years, sweetheart”, Ginny said to the seven-year-old. 

After waiting a few minutes for the boys to get a “head start” as James had asked, Harry finally got his stuff ready to board the train. He kissed Ginny, gave Peter, Lily, Rose, and Hugo hugs, gave Hermione a hug and a kiss on the cheek, and hugged Ron, before waving goodbye to them all and entering the train. 

The Hogwarts express blew its last warning whistle and started to chug along the platform. Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and their remaining kids watched as the train turned a corner up ahead and left the station. 

Hermione wiped away a tear. She was so unbelievably thankful for the life that she now lived. It took years of therapy for the nightmares about Tom Riddle to stop, but once they did she felt better than ever. She hadn’t had a nightmare in years and was living a wonderful life with her family and friends. She turned to Ron and gave him a soft kiss. She loved him so much.

All was well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe it's over! This story has only been up for a little over a month and I am in awe of the response it has received. Thank you, everybody, who has read my story and thank you, everyone, who has commented and given kudos. It means the world! You are all amazing and I hope you enjoyed reading "The Golden Girl".


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